WASHINGTON — For President Bush, creating a peaceful democracy remains the overarching U.S. goal in Iraq. Last week, he again described his vision for a "stable democracy" that can "promote our common interests in the Middle East."
But in two days of exhaustive testimony before the House and Senate, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said conspicuously little about democracy in that nation.
That's because, without saying so publicly, U.S. war planners have moved further from those idealistic goals.
They are now pursuing a strategy aimed at a more modest outcome, one that emphasizes keeping the peace over democratic reforms.
In fact, as military officials acknowledge, some of the newer tactics may make democracy more unlikely than ever.
Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has always championed Bush's Iraq strategy and has never clashed publicly with the president. But the last week made clear the growing divergence between political rhetoric and the reality of the war.
When it comes to defining victory, Petraeus told lawmakers last week, he and U.S. Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker consider themselves minimalists.
"We're not after the Holy Grail on Iraq," Petraeus said. "We're not after Jeffersonian democracy."
Meeting with reporters two days later, Petraeus said that it was important to foster democratic practices but that U.S. aspirations had been "tempered by experience."
"There's not a desire for what people might see as perfection," Petraeus said. "Adequate is good enough, if you will."
Over the last 15 months, a shift to more modest expectations has been built into U.S. military operations and planning in Iraq, current and former officers said.
"We are more focused on security and stability than we are on other lofty democratic goals," said a senior officer who has served in Iraq but who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing military planning. "The longer we are there, the more pragmatic we become."
As last year's troop buildup was being planned, the Joint Chiefs of Staff began pushing for a more pragmatic -- and modest -- approach that de-emphasized democracy, according to military officers.
A Joint Campaign Plan for Iraq developed by Petraeus and Crocker also adopted a more realistic approach. That document, setting out U.S. military and diplomatic strategies, emphasizes security over good government, said John R. Martin, a retired colonel who worked on it.
