Petraeus: Return to 'pre-surge' troop levels, then wait

Iraq is making "fragile but reversible" progress on security, but it's too early to set dates to pull out all U.S. troops, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq told Congress on Tuesday.
Gen. David Petraeus said the number of troops should return to "pre-surge" levels this summer, but the military should gauge conditions before making further decisions.
After the 20,000 troops sent during last year's surge are withdrawn, by July, the military should wait 45 days before deciding on more reductions, Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"This approach does not allow establishment of a set withdrawal timetable," he said. "However, it does provide the flexibility those of us on the ground need to preserve the still fragile security gains our troopers have fought so hard and sacrificed so much to achieve."
There has been "significant but uneven progress," Petraeus said, adding that recent violence shows the progress is "fragile but reversible."
"The situation in certain areas is still unsatisfactory and innumerable challenges remain," he said.
Petraeus said the surge of U.S. troops last year and the incorporation of Iraqi citizens' security groups have yielded results. Both efforts have helped reduce "the areas where al Qaeda enjoys support."
"Iraq has also conducted a surge, adding well over 100,000 additional soldiers and police to the ranks of its security forces in 2007 and slowly increasing its capability to deploy and employ these forces," Petraeus said.
Recent military operations in the southern city of Basra demonstrate that Iraqi forces can do things today that would have been impossible a year ago, the general said.