WASHINGTON - Democrats charged Monday that the US "surge" strategy in Iraq had failed even before General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker began testifying on the results of the troop buildup.
"The fact remains, gentlemen, that the administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two committees that victory is at hand," said Representative Tom Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"With all due respect to you, I must say I dont buy it," he said.
"The current escalation in our military presence in Iraq may have produced some tactical successes. But strategically, the escalation has failed," he said.
Petraeus, the top US commander in Iraq, and Crocker sat grim-faced before a rare joint hearing of the committees seen as a crucial battle over the future of the four and a half year old US military presence in Iraq.
Representative Ike Skelton, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, praised both men as "two of America's finest" but said the surge was just the latest in a long line of operations in Iraq.
"One of the great ironies of this hearing today is that General Petraeus, who sits here before us, is almost certainly the right man for the job in Iraq. But he's the right person three years too late and 250,000 troops short," Skelton said.
jm/jkb
09/10/2007 17:15 GMT