Washington – Iraq, a nation gripped by fear, is struggling to meet security and political goals by September, U.S. officials said Thursday from Baghdad, dashing hopes in Congress that the country might turn a corner this summer.
One general said not to expect a solid judgment on the U.S. troop buildup until November.
“If there is one word I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq – on the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods and at the national level – that word would be ‘fear,”‘ Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“For Iraq to move forward at any level, that fear is going to have to be replaced with some level of trust and confidence and that is what the effort at the national level is about,” he said by video link from the Iraqi capital.
In briefings to the news media as well as members of Congress, officials warned that making those strides could take more time than first thought.
Most lawmakers have hoped Iraq would show more signs of stability this summer, long before the 2008 U.S. elections.
For months, Republicans in particular have regarded September as pivotal. If substantial gains could not be found by then, they say, President Bush would have to rethink his military strategy, which relies on 158,000 U.S. troops.
“I’m not optimistic,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said of the September assessment. She spoke after attending a classified briefing at the Pentagon by Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq.
Early Thursday morning, some 50 House members and 40 senators took buses to the Pentagon for separate question-and- answer sessions with Crocker and Petraeus.
According to attendees, lawmakers were told that the political process was slow-moving and that it would be very difficult for Iraq to meet its 18 reform goals in the next 45 days. A recent administration progress report found Iraq was making some progress in eight areas.
In open testimony later Thursday, Crocker played down the importance of meeting major challenges right away and said less ambitious goals, such as restoring electricity to a neighborhood, can be just as beneficial. Crocker also pointed toward political headway at the local level and said agreements there may inspire further cooperation among sects.
The much-cited benchmarks “do not serve as reliable measures of everything that is important – Iraqi attitudes toward each other and their willingness to work toward political reconciliation,” he said.
