Petraeus: No foreseeable drawdown of troops; 'We have a lot of heavy lifting to do'

Above: U.S. and Iraqi soldiers on patrol in Baghdad last Wednesday. Iraqi soldiers generally have only a three-month tour in Baghdad at any one time.

Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top commander in Iraq said yesterday.

Asked whether he thought the job assigned to an additional 30,000 troops deployed as the centerpiece of President Bush's new war strategy would be completed by then, Gen. David H. Petraeus replied: "I do not, no. I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do."

Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker, his diplomatic counterpart in Baghdad, said a key report they will deliver to Washington in September will include what Crocker called "an assessment of what the consequences might be if we pursue other directions."

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