More Iraq progress wanted

Democrats, including the party’s conservative “Blue Dogs,” say it will take “monumental” improvement in Iraq — not the current blips of success — to sway them from pushing for a U.S. troop withdrawal after a September progress report.

“The military victories are just episodic,” said Rep. Jane Harman, a hawkish California Democrat and chairman of the Homeland Security intelligence subcommittee.

“It is doubtful that there will be a silver bullet, or even a brass bullet, in this report that will turn this thing around.”

Rep. Charlie Wilson, a freshman Democrat from a conservative blue-collar Ohio district, said he “would definitely need monumental proof, not just an isolated improvement.”

The remarks echo the opinion of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, who aides say is “not willing to concede there are positive things to point to” in Iraq, despite recent upbeat assessments from Pentagon officials, House members who toured Iraq and even from a liberal Washington think tank.

The Democrats’ antiwar base also will not budge, regardless of what is in the Sept. 15 report from Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker and Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, U.S. commander in Iraq.

“No matter what the Petraeus report says we will continue to call for the speedy and safe withdrawal of all U.S. troops,” said Medea Benjamin, spokeswoman for the feminist antiwar group Code Pink.

The Democrat-led Congress continued to hammer the war issue yesterday, with a near party-line 229-194 House vote approving a bill that would limit time of troop deployments.

Supporters said it would ensure troop readiness, requiring troops’ time at home equal to time in combat.

“Our troops and their families are tired. They are being stressed by the continued and extended deployments,” said Rep. Ike Skelton, Missouri Democrat and chairman of the Armed Services Committee.

“It is time for Congress to take a stand on behalf of our families and say in a clear, unequivocal voice that it is time that service members have a minimum dwell time between deployments,” he said.

Rep. Howard P. “Buck” McKeon, California Republican, called the bill a “backhanded attempt to force an American withdrawal from Iraq.”

A similar measure by Sen. James H. Webb Jr., Virginia Democrat, failed in the Senate last month.

Though Iraq remains mired in violence and bloodshed, recent military gains include more security throughout Baghdad, reduced sectarian violence, al Qaeda losing ground in Sunni areas and the year’s lowest U.S. casualty count in July.

“Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms,” wrote Michael E. O’Hanlon and Kenneth M. Pollack, two liberal Brookings Institution scholars who previously criticized the war strategy, in an op-ed article Monday in the New York Times.

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