US General Says He May Need More Time to Assess Iraq Surge(1/3)

General Odierno says the troop surge and the new approach to fighting the Iraqi insurgency are making progress, with increases in the number of coalition operations that find weapons caches, bomb factories and insurgent cells. But he also says insurgents attack every day, and he cautions against excessive optimism. The general says he might not be able to make even an initial assessment of the new strategy by September.

"The assessment might be that I need a little more time, the assessment might be I've seen enough and it's effective, or I've seen enough and it's not going to be effective. Right now, if you ask me, I would tell you I'll probably need a little bit more time to do a true assessment."

The general says the last of the additional combat troops will not be in place until mid-June, and they will need considerable time after that to make any significantimpact.

"In a counterinsurgency, we've quickly learned they must be immersed into the local populace" class="hjdict" word="populace" target=_blank>populace. And it will take new units anywhere from 30 to 60 days to really get a feel for their sectors so they truly can have an impact on security and stability in their area."