Petraeus recommends troop pause

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WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton today confronted Army Gen. David H. Petraeus about his recommendation to pause the drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq, saying America was paying too high a cost for the open-ended military commitment.

Mrs. Clinton, who has pledged to start a pullout within 60 days if she is elected president, said that the ongoing deployment has sapped the U.S. military capabilities and that every time the war effort verges on success, "Iraqi leaders fail to deliver" political reconciliation.

"What condition would have to exist for you to recommend to the president that the present strategy is not working?" she asked at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "How are we to judge what the conditions should be?"

Gen. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq, said analysis of the political and security situation in Iraq was not a "mathematical exercise."

Earlier, he warned lawmakers at the hearing that "fragile and reversible" security gains from the surge of U.S. troops in Iraq would be shattered by Democrats' pullout plans. He recommended a pause to troop reductions in July and an assessment period to decide how to proceed.

The general told Mrs. Clinton that U.S. commanders and Iraqi leaders would have to assess the activity of enemy forces and the capabilities of the Iraqi forces before determining whether to recommend more U.S. troop reductions.

Gen. Petraeus testified with Ambassador to Iraq Ryan C. Crocker today as part of a war report mandated by the Democrat-led Congress.

Democrats pushed for a pullout strategy, citing some of the same conditions that Gen. Petraeus used to support continued engagement in Iraq, including the ever-present threat of renewed fighting.

They questioned the general and the ambassador about the slow pace of political reform by the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the oil-rich country's failure to pay for the war or reconstruction.

The hearings also provided a platform for all three major presidential candidates to present their views on the Iraq war. Democratic front-runner Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois will have a chance to pose questions later today when the general and the ambassador appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.