July 31, 2007 (LPAC)--Admiral Michael Mullen, President Bush's nominee to succeed Gen. Peter Pace as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, emphasized the need to establish stability in the Middle East-Persian Gulf region during testimony during his confirmation hearing to the Senate Armed Services Committee this morning. He also expressed a great deal of concern about the condition of the Army as a result of the Iraq occupation. "I worry about the toll this pace of operations is taking on them, our equipment and on our ability to respond to other crises and contingencies." On Iraq, Mullen tied security in Iraq to security in the region and thus to the security of the United States, therefore "we must consider our next moves very carefully." In response to a series of leading questions from Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC) and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Mullen expressed agreement with allegations that Iran is involved in the killing of American troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he resisted any suggestion that there's a military option to deal with it. "I would hope that we could address this issue and these issues with Iran diplomatically. I think... military forces should be used as a step of last resort..."

Mullen also indicated, under questioning from Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY), his involvement on developing contingency plans for withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq. Mullen said that one of the issues he had about the invasion of Iraq was that "I didn't think we planned it. We didn't have the planning that we should have had in place. I'm very committed to properly planning, to the best of my ability, every possible operation we might be involved in" to include the kind of contingency planning that Clinton has been writing letters to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about.

The closest approach to reality throughout the entire proceeding, however, came from Sen. James Webb (D-VA). Webb noted that while there was a lot of talk about instability in the region that might result from U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, what there has not been enough focus on is "regional instability... largely as a result of the fact that we went in the first place." He listed a number of examples of that instability, including the price of oil nearing $80 per barrel, the refugee crisis and reports that Saudi Arabia actually is providing the plurality of the suicide bombers in Iraq. "So, really, the question becomes to what extent our military presence in Iraq affects this instability, and to what extent these issues should be dealt with through robust diplomacy." Mullen would not go much beyond acknowledging the complexities that Webb raised and saying that that is why "we need to be mindful of that as we move forward."