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(MCT) WASHINGTON – Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, told Congress on… (MCT) WASHINGTON – Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Iraq, told Congress on Monday that he’s recommended the withdrawal of 30,000 U.S. forces from Iraq by mid-July.

That would still leave about 130,000 there, as many as when President Bush announced his “surge” in January. Petraeus said he couldn’t yet say when the rest could be withdrawn. Polls show that some 60 percent of Americans want to set a timetable to bring the troops home.

Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, predicted that Iraq eventually would take over its own security and form a stable, democratic government, though, as Petraeus put it, “doing so will be neither quick nor easy.”

“There are no switches to flip that will cause the politics to come magically together,” Crocker said. “This is something Iraqis are going to have to work through,” and it’s impossible to say when they will, he added.

Their testimony of more than six hours – interrupted repeatedly by anti-war protesters who were hauled away by police – came as congressional Democrats prepare to push anew to force a speedier withdrawal from Iraq.

Leading Democrats rejected Petraeus’ vision.

“Removing a brigade is nothing but a political whisper, and it is unacceptable to the American people and a majority of Congress,” said Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, which sponsored the hearing with the House Armed Services Committee. – Renee Schoof, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) KABUL, Afghanistan – In the land where more opium and heroin are produced than the entire world consumes, Afghans are increasingly hooked on their own product.

And now, Afghan doctors say, more and more women are using the drug, desperate to escape depression or pain. The women suck on pea-sized pieces of opium beneath their tongues, chew it or drink it with tea. Some have started to smoke heroin, which is more refined than opium and considered much more addictive.

Often, mothers take their children with them. They give the skin of the addictive poppy fruit to hungry babies to make them feel full, the mothers say. They blow smoke in the mouths of crying toddlers to quiet them – a practice that public-service warnings try to discourage. Or, as Sabera says she did two years ago, they say yes to children who wonder what their mother is doing and want to try it.

“There are families where the whole family is using heroin,” said Dr. Shaista, the coordinator of the government-run Sanga Amaj Drug Treatment Center, which keeps patients for a month and then gives follow-up treatment.

“Nobody stops it. Nobody bans it. The police are there, but they do nothing. In every corner of the city, people are selling heroin,” Shaista said.

Opium production in Afghanistan now exceeds the world’s demand by more than 3,000 tons, the report said, adding that this year’s harvest may kill, directly and indirectly, more than 100,000 people in the world.

As the amount of poppies has skyrocketed, more Afghans have started using the drug.

Almost 1 million Afghans use drugs, from illicit prescription drugs to heroin, according to a recent study by the Ministry of Counter Narcotics, or one in 32 Afghans.

About seven percent are children, and 13 percent are women, ministry spokesman Zalmai Afzali said. Last year there were 13 treatment centers in the country. Now there are 27.

“And still these are not enough,” Afzali said. – Kim Barker, Chicago Tribune