Commander backs Bush war plan

WASHINGTON -- The general who will carry out President Bush's plan for Iraq cautioned yesterday against expecting quick results and used bleak terms to describe a country engulfed in war for nearly four years. Yet, he said the strategy can work as long as the Iraqis do their part.

Facing a skeptical Congress and an American public that has turned starkly against the war, Army Lieutenant General David Petraeus promised lawmakers that as the top U S commander in Iraq, he would speak up if he determines the new approach is failing. Bush is adding 21,500 U S troops to secure Baghdad and Anbar Province, home to many insurgents.

"The situation in Iraq is dire," he told the Senate Armed Services Committee, which is expected to approve his nomination for the Iraq command. "The stakes are high. There are no easy choices. The way ahead will be very hard. . . . But hard is not hopeless."

Though Petraeus was warmly received by members of the panel, the war he will help lead -- and Bush's plan to prevail in it -- faced a rougher reception.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York and a presidential candidate, launched a sharp attack on the administration's Iraq record and called Bush's new strategy "a dead end."

"I wonder whether the clock has already run out," said Senator Susan M. Collins , Republican of Maine, a sponsor of a GOP-led resolution saying the Senate disagrees with the build up. She said she was worried that U S troops in Iraq are already perceived "not as liberators, but as occupiers."

One of the few vocal supporters of the war in Congress, Senator Lindsey O. Graham , Republican of South Carolina , warned that upcoming votes criticizing the president's strategy would be harmful.

"No matter how well intentioned, a resolution being opposed to this new strategy is a vote of no confidence in you," he told Petraeus. "No matter how well intentioned, the enemy will see it as a weakened resolve."

Petraeus made his appearance as the Bush administration struggled to limit Republican defections when a Senate committee votes today on a measure declaring the president's new Iraq policy is not in the national interest.

All 11 Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee are expected to support the proposal. Of the 10 Republicans on the panel, Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska is the only one who has declared his support for the proposal.

At yesterday's hearing, Petraeus told the lawmakers that no amount of U S effort will succeed unless there is compromise. "Ultimately, the outcome will be determined by the Iraqis," he said.