Petraeus Answers Questions on Permanent Presence

Apr 10, 2008

Dear Friend,

We asked you to pressure your members of Congress to pose tough questions to General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker at the hearings on Iraq this week - and many of you did.

Thanks in part to all of our work, Petraeus, Crocker and the Bush administration know that for most Americans, the only important definition of Petraeus's vague "condition-based" withdrawal is that President Bush should heed the will of the American people, the most important condition, and bring our brave American troops home as quickly as possible.

Here at Council for a Livable World, we sat through every minute of 15 hours of Petraeus and Crocker's testimony. We posted play-by-play analyses on Iraq Insider, a blog of our sister organization, the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation.

Click here to see the highlights of the hearings.

Seven Senators - including one Republican - asked questions about a long-term security agreement with Iraq, showing that the "No Permanent Presence" policy we've been pushing is gaining support in Congress.

Once again Republican Sen. John McCain confused the Sunni-based al Qaeda with Shiite groups. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton pushed Petraeus and Crocker on a long-term security agreement with Iraq and the costs of staying there - including the human toll, deteriorating security in Afghanistan and the faltering American economy.

We'll keep pushing Congress to end this war, and we hope you will too.

Sincerely,

John Isaacs and Guy Stevens

P.S. We couldn't continue our work without the generous financial support of our members. Click here to make a donation to help us continue to bring you up to date analysis on Iraq.