by Mark Silva
Gen. David Petraeus’ return engagement on Capitol Hill next week will be of particular interest to a few of the senators on committees hearing his testimony: Sens. McCain, Obama and Clinton.
McCain, as the AP’s Liz Sidoti points out today, “will get a chance to argue that last year’s U.S. troop buildup has been a success and withdrawal would be a mistake. (and) Democratic Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama will have an opportunity to ask why the United States is still fighting more than five years after the invasion. ”
All three presidential contenders serve on Senate committees that will hear and question the military commander in Iraq on Tuesday. McCain and Clinton serve on the Armed Services Committee; Obama on the Foreign Relations Committee.
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Petraeus will arrive on Tuesday at a time when the administration is shaping its war strategy for the months ahead — presumably to conform with Petraeus’ call for a pause in the drawdown of troops while the miltiary assesses the lasting effects of the “surge” that President Bush ordered last year.
With a presidential election seven months away, Bush’s successor will inherit a war that has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 U.S. military men and women in five years.
“Overall, it’s a remarkable success — overall with significant challenges ahead,” McCain told The Associated Press recently as he predicted what Petraeus will say about the troop-increase strategy and what he says he believes himself — even though the year of the buildup was the bloodiest yet for U.S. troops.
“It is time to end this war as quickly and responsibly as possible,” Clinton, a New York Democrat, said recently.
Obama, an Illinois Democrat, also wants a quick end to the war. On Friday, he said: “”We still don’t have a good answer to the question posed by Sen. (John) Warner the last time Gen. Petraeus appeared: How has this effort in Iraq made us safer and how do we expect it will make us safer in the long run?”