“I believe that we will be able to reduce our forces to the pre-surge level … by next summer without jeopardizing the security gains we have fought so hard to achieve,” Petraeus said during the congressional hearing.

About 2,000 U.S. Marines are expected to depart from Iraq later this month. By mid-December up to 4,000 Army brigades will be withdrawn from the area, Petraeus said.

Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad, both have seen what they consider to be success in Iraq, but they don’t want to commit to a withdrawal date, said Matt Zierler, MSU assistant professor of international relations.

“They believe U.S. efforts are making progress and to continue that progress a reconfiguration of American troops needs to be done,” Zierler said. “But at the same time, they can’t give an exact schedule when the American efforts will end.”

During his speech, Petraeus cited the al Anbar province as an area where vast security measures have improved and an example of where Iraqis are turning against terrorists.

The al Anbar region was visited by President Bush last week in an effort to demonstrate the security improvements done there by both U.S. soldiers and Iraqis.

“I trust the military leadership and Gen. Petraeus to make the call as to what the troop level should be in Iraq,” said Ben Morlock, political science sophomore and MSU College Republican chairman. “Gen. Petraeus and his commanders are the ones on the ground there. I’d rather have him making the decisions about what’s going on in Iraq than people sitting behind desks back in Washington.”

Some people want a timeline of when the troops will be out, but a timeline may distract from the actual reality and conditions for the troops fighting the war, Zierler said.

A USA Today-Gallup poll taken Friday and Saturday reported 60 percent of those surveyed favored setting a timetable for removing troops while only 35 percent favored keeping the troops in Iraq until the situation improves.

“I think of it in terms of Vietnam – they were always announcing the troops were withdrawing some time in the future and when we got there, it never happened,” said Mark Grebner, a political consultant with East Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting Inc. “The point is the happiest possible outcome will be bad and the worst possible outcome will be terrible.”

Military gains have been uneven but there has been an overall decline in violence, Petraeus said.

However, some people’s outlook on the war may not be positive, regardless of troop withdrawal.

“People will look at this as the disruption of the Iraqi civilization,” Grebner said. “People’s lives are being ruined here, people are dying in the streets, people whose relatives are kidnapped and tortured to death