WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Two ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee Sunday found little common ground on how best to pursue U.S. interests in Iraq.
Having just returned from Iraq, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told "Fox News Sunday" he found U.S. tactics "working amazingly well, beyond my expectations."
Committee chairman, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., acknowledged the 60 percent drop in Iraqi civilian deaths since the military surge was fully implemented in June, but lamented that politically Iraqis "are just as far apart as ever." He said he believes there is "growing frustration" with the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki over its failure to make advances on the political unity front.
"That growing frustration is reflected in a State Department bulletin that just came out which said that the greatest threat which now exists in Iraq is no longer al-Qaida, it is not the insurgency, the Sunni insurgency, it is not the militias. The greatest threat to any success in Iraq is the failure of the Iraqi politicians to work out their political differences."
Levin argued for deadlines for removing U.S. troops, while Graham stood firm on continuing the surge.
