“We can not take ANY of this Administration’s assertions on Iraq at face value anymore, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility. This is not a knock on you, General Petraeus, or on you, Ambassador Crocker. But the fact remains, gentlemen, that the Administration has sent you here today to convince the members of these two Committees and the Congress that victory is at hand. With all due respect to you, I must say … I don’t buy it. And neither does the independent Government Accountability Office or the Commission headed by General Jones. Both recently issued deeply pessimistic reports… In the last few days, General Petraeus, media have reported that you are prepared to support a slow drawdown of our forces in Iraq – beginning with a brigade or two, perhaps at the end of this year. This clearly is nowhere near enough… It is time to go – and to go now.”

Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus testify in a joint hearing with the Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees. Chairman Tom Lantos of the Foreign Affairs Committee gives opening remarks.