Petraeus previews his congressional testimony

Gen. Petraeus is scheduled to return to Congress next month for a second assessment of "the surge." He begins to lay the groundwork in a WaPo interview.

Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.....

While violence has declined dramatically since late 2006, when thousands of Iraqis were being killed each month, U.S. military data show that attacks on U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians have leveled off or risen slightly in the early part of 2008. "I don't see an enormous uptick projected right now,"....

Petraeus also said the United States would temporarily freeze further reductions in its troop presence to allow for a "period of consolidation and evaluation after reducing our ground combat forces by over a quarter." He said he would discuss the length and timing of what the military terms an "operational pause" during his testimony.

And, I would like to point out again that Adm. Fallon's sudden departure, effective Mar. 31, removes him from having to be involved in these Congressional hearings/reporting.

(Notable as Fallon apparently left over disagreements with Petraeus on Iraq.)