Petraeus: Obama Pullout Plan Not A Good Idea

Gen. David Petraeus said that Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw one U.S. troop brigade from Iraq per month wasn’t a good idea at this moment.

Petreaus was asked about the plan last week by Fox News, which aired the interview Monday. Petraeus, who handed over last month command of coalition forces in Iraq to Gen. Raymond Odierno, has consistently argued against any pullout plans that set a definite timetable. Petraeus has said that any withdrawal should be based on conditions on the ground.

Here is Petraeus’s exchange with Fox’s Bill Hemmer about Obama’s plan:

HEMMER: Senator Obama has said that he would like to take one brigade out of Iraq per month. Maybe that’s 35 men and women, maybe that’s 4500 men and women, somewhere in that — in that range of numbers.

As we sit here today, is that a good idea?

PETRAEUS: Well, it’s not, as we sit here today. It’s what the conditions are, of course, when you might start carrying out whatever, of course, it decided upon.

HEMMER: It’s the conditions.

PETRAEUS: But I — I would come back, again, Bill, if I could, to the importance of dialogue that will take place. And, again, I — I truly believe that will be the process, that there will be a discussion of the objectives and then there will be military advice on the resources required to achieve those objectives. There will, undoubtedly, be analysis of the varying degrees of risk depending on the level of resources provided, and then decisions will be made from there.

But, again, our job is to provide our best professional military advice at that time.