War on the home front

Iraq | For U.S. commander in Iraq Gen. David Petraeus, “home” means trading one battleground for another | Priya Abraham

No lawmaker dared criticize Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of American forces in Iraq, as he walked into four congressional hearings last week with four stars atop each shoulder and ribbons stacked across his chest.

Some labeled Petraeus' return historic, like that of Vietnam War commander William Westmoreland, whose 1967 testimony before Congress helped soften an unpopular war. But to others it mattered little that Petraeus had good news: War critics want combat over U.S involvement in Iraq, no matter what.

Washington lawmakers and pundits waited eight months for the Petraeus report, the definitive review meant to tell the country how the United States is performing against a deadly counterinsurgency in Iraq. Since a strategy shift by President Bush in late 2006 that put 30,000 additional troops in Iraq (the last of whom arrived in June), the Bush administration has asked both critics and hesitant allies to defer judgment on the war until Petraeus returned.