WASHINGTON (AFP) — Washington was braced Monday for a potentially defining moment on Iraq, with US commander General David Petraeus poised to give Congress a hotly-anticipated report on the unpopular war.
The talismanic four-star general, accompanied by US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker, was expected to tell lawmakers President George W. Bush's 'surge' strategy had slashed sectarian violence and should be extended.
But Democrats demanding immediate troop reductions launched a pre-emptive strike against Petraeus, arguing the surge of 28,500 extra soldiers had failed in its prime objective -- driving Iraqis towards political reconciliation.
Petraeus and Crocker were due to appear at rare joint session of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees, at 12:30 pm (1630 GMT), in one of the most eagerly awaited political set pieces in years.
The New York Times reported Petraeus would ask for a six-month delay on deciding whether to make large cuts in the US troop strength in Iraq, a move sure to ignite a new political firestorm.
Petraeus has told Bush up to 4,000 troops -- one brigade -- of the 168,000 US soldiers in Iraq can return home starting in mid-December, the report said, quoting US officials.
But the Times said Petraeus wanted to wait for six months to decide whether to cut troop numbers below pre-surge levels of 130,000.
Pent-up political fury over the war spilled over even before Petraeus and Crocker appeared, with Republicans accusing Democrats of embracing "character assassination" tactics designed to discredit the Generals's testimony.
The flare-up was sparked by a full-page advertisement in the New York Times placed by anti-war liberal campaign group MoveOn.org, reading "General Petraeus or General Betray US? Cooking the Books for the White House."
White House spokesman Tony Snow called the ad "boorish and childish." He also said the Crocker and Petraeus testimony had not been shaped by the White House.
House minority leader John Boehner led the Republican counter-attack.
"Democratic leaders must make a choice today: either embrace the character assassination tactics MoveOn.org has leveled against the four-star general leading our troops in the fight against Al-Qaeda, or denounce it as disgraceful," he said.
Petraeus meanwhile got a boost from Baghdad, where Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Parliament violence had dropped 75 percent in the restive provinces of Baghdad and Anbar under the surge.
"We have succeeded in preventing Iraq from sliding into a civil war in spite of all the destabilizing actions by local and international groups," Maliki said.
Monday's hearing marked the start of a momentous week for US Iraq strategy.
The general and ambassador were due to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services committees on Tuesday.
Bush, bound by law to provide a report on the progress of the war in by Saturday, was expected to make a televised address to the American people later in the week.
A New York Times/CBS News Poll out Monday reflected the key role played by Petraeus as the public face of a war which has now killed 3,700 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
When asked to choose who could best end the war in Iraq, 68 percent of those polled said they most trusted military commanders, 21 percent said Congress, and a measly five percent said the Bush administration.
Democrats are quarreling with figures that Petraeus is expected to use to prove sectarian violence has been slashed under the surge.
An official US government auditor said last week that he was uncomfortable with the "methodology" used to reach such conclusions.
Petraeus previewed his testimony in a weekend letter to US troops, saying "my sense is that we have achieved tactical momentum and wrested the initiative from our enemies in a number of areas of Iraq."
But he admitted the pace of political progress had been slower than US officials hoped when Bush announced the surge in January.
Monday's presentation is billed as the most high-profile appearance on Capitol Hill of a US military commander since General William Westmoreland addressed the House and the Senate in 1967 on the state of the war in Vietnam.
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