Who's not listening to the Generals now?

Like they ever intended to anyway...

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq and a top military commander there said today that U.S. forces are making progress against al-Qaeda, with successes in the western province of Anbar now being replicated in other volatile parts of the country.

Ryan C. Crocker, who took over as ambassador in Baghdad four months ago, cautioned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee via a balky video hookup that a "non-conditioned withdrawal" of U.S. forces from Iraq -- such as a redeployment mandated by Congress -- could undo recent successes and give al-Qaeda "further room to operate."

Earlier, Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, commander of the Multi-National Corps - Iraq, told a Pentagon news briefing by teleconference that while the U.S. command in Baghdad plans to deliver a progress report on the Bush administration's troop-surge strategy by a September deadline, the military needs at least until November to see whether trends are holding and to make a "more accurate assessment."

Both Crocker and Odierno asserted that the surge has had a significant impact on al-Qaeda in Iraq, the group held responsible for most of the spectacular suicide bombings in the country. And they said a potentially crucial phenomenon in Anbar province, where Sunni Arab tribes have turned against al-Qaeda, is spreading to parts of the capital and other provinces, including troubled Diyala province, which has seen a rise in violence in recent months.

At the Senate hearing, a few Republican lawmakers joined Democrats in expressing skepticism about the surge and the Iraqi government's ability to meet political and economic benchmarks considered crucial to achieving national reconciliation. Democrats criticized Crocker for appearing to play down the benchmarks in recent remarks in which he emphasized that concerns such as the electricity supply were more important to average Iraqis.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), the committee chairman, urged Crocker to convey to Iraqi leaders that they are running out of time and need to move toward national reconciliation by meeting the benchmarks, "or they will have traded a dictator for chaos."

Biden said, "I believe there is no possible way we will have 160,000 troops in Iraq a year from now. Time's running out in a big way."

He later warned Crocker, "We're not staying. You don't have much time."

In response to Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), who charged that "the goalposts are now moving," Crocker said he was trying to give his best assessment and denied painting a rosy picture.

"I'm certainly not moving any goalposts," he said. "There are a lot of processes at work -- some of them positive, some of them negative." While Anbar is unique, "there are similar phenomena being repeated around the country," Crocker said.

"I'm not trying to gild any lilies here," he added. "But there are opportunities in that complexity. We have to be aware enough and quick enough to turn them to the advantage" of the Iraqi government.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), an outspoken GOP critic of President Bush's Iraq war policy, charged that "we're buying time for a political reconciliation process that is not occurring."

Crocker stressed that at the national level, he has been encouraged by the evolution of a "presidency council" made up of Iraq's Kurdish president, the country's two vice presidents -- one Shiite, the other Sunni -- and the Shiite prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki. He said the council brings an Iraqi Sunni leader together with Maliki in a venue where they can deal with crises, and he expressed hope that it could "over time chart the way forward on legislative benchmarks" demanded by Washington.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) pointed to a recent comment by Maliki that Iraqi forces are capable of handling security without the help of U.S. troops.

"You have an Iraqi leader who says you can go home . . . don't stay on our account," she said. "How many Americans have to die while we're buying time for an Iraqi leader who says we don't have to be there?"

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