Iraq War Commander: Military Alone Won't Win

March 8, 2007 — -- As additional U.S. troops continue to flow into Baghdad, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, warned that force alone would not get the job done.

"Any student of history knows there is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq, to the insurgency of Iraq," said Petraeus. "Military action is necessary to help improve security … but it is not sufficient."

Watch Jonathan Karl's report on Gen. Petraeus' remarks tonight on "World News."

But in his first public comments since taking over, Petraeus made it clear the surge of more than 20,000 additional combat troops won't be over any time soon. After all, he said, all those troops won't even be in place until this summer.

"This is months; this is not days, it's not weeks, it is months," he said. "It will be all the way until early June before we even have all the force in position."

Petraeus' deputy, Gen. Ray Odierno, is now recommending that the surge last at least until February 2008, possibly putting the commanders in Iraq on a collision course not only with the Democrats in Congress, who are proposing a bill to require that a pullout begin soon afterward, but also with the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

ABC News has learned military planners at the Pentagon have recommended the drawdown of those forces begin in September. The reason is that they believe stress on the Army is simply too great to maintain higher force levels any longer than that.

But commanders in Iraq say even with the strain on the Army, there is simply no choice.