Iraq war commander General David Petraeus is poised to mount a staunch defense of the US troop surge strategy today, in one of the most dramatic appearances of a witness before Congress in years.
The talismanic general faces a hostile barrage from Democrats over if and when troops can come home from a four-year war that has killed more than 3,700 US soldiers, tens of thousands of Iraqis and cost half a trillion US dollars.
Joined by US Ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, Petraeus will swap Baghdad's stifling heat for cool congressional committee rooms today and tomorrow, to compliment a report on the war which US President George W. Bush must deliver by Saturday.
He will argue the contentious strategy to surge 28,500 extra troops into war-battered Iraq announced in January, has slashed sectarian violence and should be extended.
But he also is expected to accept gradual cuts in the 168,000 strong US garrison in Iraq, beginning early next year -- though the troop reductions he has in mind will likely not satisfy the anti-war Democrats.
"My sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq," Petraeus wrote in a letter to US forces.
But he admitted political reconciliation in Baghdad had not "worked out as we had hoped" though he was optimistic "a stable and secure Iraq" was possible.
Democrats have for months seen Petraeus's testimony as a landmark moment in the war, and hoped to use it to fracture Republican support for Bush.
But they appear to have been outflanked by the White House during last month, and the threat of a Republican revolt seems to have faded.
Democrats will claim sacrifices made by US soldiers were in vain, with no sign the Iraqi government has made the progress that the surge was designed to promote.
Petraeus's expected contention that sectarian violence is receding in Iraq will also be under fire, after a US official auditor cast doubt on the figures on Friday.
Democrats are under pressure from grass roots supporters who helped them capture Congress last year, but slim majorities and Bush's constitutional powers have thwarted their anti-war drive.
Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the House of Representatives Democratic caucus, accused the administration of "cherry-picking" progress in Iraq.
"We don't need a report that wins the Nobel Prize for creative statistics or the Pulitzer for fiction," Emanuel said.
The stage was set for Petraeus by two reports examined in high-stakes congressional hearings last week.
In one, the Government Accountability Office concluded Iraq had failed to meet 11 of 18 benchmarks for political reform.
In a second study, retired marine General James Jones warned US-trained Iraqi forces would not be able to assume combat duties alone for 12 to 18 months.
Faced with such realities, not only Democrats have political concerns -- with congressional elections looming next year, Republicans fear wooing voters while again defending an unpopular war.
Petraeus' testimony will expose chasms in US politics forged by the war.
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