Joint Chiefs Nominee Questioned on Iraq by Mark Mazzetti

t is good to see the chair-designate of the Joint Chiefs acknowledge this reality.

August 1, 2007
Joint Chiefs Nominee Questioned on Iraq
By MARK MAZZETTI
NEW YORK TIMES

WASHINGTON, July 31 — The Navy admiral nominated to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that American military efforts in Iraq would fail unless Iraqi leaders did more to bridge sectarian divides. But he also warned that a rapid exit of American troops could turn Iraq into a “cauldron” for broader Middle East strife.

The failure of the Iraqis to make progress toward political unity imperils Iraq, said the nominee, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, who said that unless things changed, “no amount of troops in no amount of time will make much of a difference.”

He said he believed that the American troop increase this year in Iraq had helped tamp down violence, saying security was “not great, but better.” But he also said that the United States risked breaking the Army if the Pentagon decided to maintain escalated troop levels in Iraq beyond next spring.

During more than three and a half hours of often blunt testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, both Admiral Mullen and Gen. James E. Cartwright, the nominee to be vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, were generally praised for giving candid answers about the security and political situation in Iraq.

The departing chairman, Gen. Peter Pace, has faced sharp criticism from Congress during his two-year tenure for painting what lawmakers from both parties have described as an overly optimistic portrait of the situation in the country.

Admiral Mullen and General Cartwright were nevertheless careful not to stray too far from assessments about Iraq given by other top administration officials, saying they would await a September report from military and civilian officials in Iraq before they could decide on the future of the additional troops there.

The officers said the American and Iraqi militaries had made gains against Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the homegrown Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence agencies have concluded is foreign-led. But General Cartwright said Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia seemed “to have an unlimited pool from which to draw from.”

Admiral Mullen, who initially opposed the Bush administration’s “surge” plan but came to believe that it could work if accompanied by economic development and political reconciliation, was generally unsparing in his criticism of Iraqi politicians. It is imperative, he said, that American officials “bring as much pressure on them as we possibly can.”

Neither Admiral Mullen nor General Cartwright faced particularly difficult questioning, partly because neither man has been central to the Pentagon’s decision making about the Iraq war. Both are expected to be swiftly confirmed by the Senate.

Most of the session focused on the future of the Iraq war, a sign of just how much the administration’s once grand plans for the military have been altered by the past four years.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, top administration officials spoke of transforming the military to win quick military campaigns with relatively few combat troops, and become more adaptable to fight terrorist leaders like Osama bin Laden and netwroks like Al Qaeda. On Tuesday, Admiral Mullen made clear that he expected the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan to impose a strain on the armed services for years to come.

For instance, he said that even if the United States were to cut its force in Iraq by half next year, it would still be another three to four years before it would be possible to guarantee that troops could spend two years at home between combat tours, a deployment tempo that Admiral Mullen said was the goal.

Both General Pace and his predecessor, Gen. Richard B. Myers, have drawn intense criticism from Congress for refusing for years to enlarge the military even as troops were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan on multiple combat tours, many of them seeing their tours of duty extended by months. The administration reversed course late last year and announced plans to expand the Army and Marine Corps.

Under questioning, Admiral Mullen said that strains on the force could end up dictating military decisions about troop deployments in Iraq. He said that maintaining current troop levels in Iraq beyond next April would force planners to extend tours of duty beyond 15 months, a decision he said he opposed.

Admiral Mullen was also questioned on a range of subjects beyond Iraq, and he warned that Iran was aggressively challenging the United States across the Middle East and that it had made a “strategic shift” to enter into an alliance in Afghanistan with the Taliban, the militant Sunni Muslim group that Shiite-dominated Iran has long regarded as a foe.

Admiral Mullen said he was also concerned about the situation in Pakistan, including the speed with which Al Qaeda has built up a safe haven in the tribal areas near the Afghan border. He said it was a good sign that Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had sent his military back to the tribal areas, but said he was unsure how effective they will be against entrenched Qaeda operatives.