WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka told the top U.S. commander in Iraq today that the Army's 15-month troop deployments leave little time for soldiers to be at home before returning to Iraq.

The Hawai'i Democrat's comments came as Army Gen. David Petraeus called for halting U.S. troop withdrawals indefinitely this summer to assess security gains and said future reductions should be based on conditions and not timetables.

Akaka said he was concerned that the Army has been ordering 15-month deployments followed by 12 months at the soldier's home station. But only six months of that time is "quality time with their families." The rest is training and other work that keeps them away from their families, Akaka said.

"In the near to medium term, especially if a decision is made to freeze further troop withdrawals, the strain on equipment, on our forces and on their families as well, will continue," said Akaka, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. "The operations tempo in Iraq has had a dramatically negative impact on the readiness of both our active-duty military and our National Guard and Reserves."

Petraeus said he expected the time at home generally would be more.

"There is no question that certain individuals in certain units, if they have stayed in those units over time, have — may now be on their third tour," Petraeus told the committee. "There's no question, as well, that a 15-month tour is very, very difficult on a soldier and on a family."

Petraeus said he supported the Army's goal of getting back to 12-month deployments.

But Petraeus, flanked by the U.S. ambassador in Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said he took strain on the force into account when he made his recommendation for a 45-day "period of consolidation and evaluation" once the troops levels have been brought down to about 140,000 in July.

"At the end of that period, we will commence a process of assessment to examine the conditions on the ground," Petraeus said in his determined military cadence. "This process will be continuous, with recommendations for further reductions made as conditions permit."

He would not commit to any troop levels after that.

"This approach does not allow (the) establishment of a set withdrawal timetable," Petraeus said. "However, it does provide the flexibility those of us on the ground need to preserve the still-fragile security gains.

Akaka said he was disappointed but not surprised with Petraeus' request for an open-ended commitment in Iraq, even though the general admits there is no military solution.

"Keeping 142,000 troops there is not the answer," Akaka said. "Iraq needs a political solution, which only the Iraqis can provide, to bring real stability and security to their country."

Other members of Hawai'i's Congressional delegation reacted to Petraeus' appearance in the Senate.

U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee, said the surge is not working and the troops need to be brought home.

"It (the surge) will not and cannot determine whether Iraq is peaceful and democratic or continues to be torn by sectarian power struggles and violence," he said.

Abercrombie said the recent upswing of violence in Basra and Baghdad is a civil war among three rival Shiite organizations and even with American and British support, the Iraqi government forces resolved nothing.

"There is no U.S. military solution to this situation," he said. "If we truly want to support our troops, we will end the surge and bring them home," he said.

U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawai'i, said Petraeus and Crocker "continue to tell the same story we've been hearing for years."

The government is spending $339 million a day on the war, Hirono said. That amount would cover Pell grants for 18,000 students to attend college for a year or help almost 1 million low-income families with their energy bills, she said.

"It is now harder than ever to justify our continued involvement in this war," Hirono said. "The American people are tired of the same rhetoric and want the troops to come home safely."

Petraeus painted probably the clearest picture to date of what the U.S. presence in Iraq will look like for the foreseeable future, if not the remainder of the Bush presidency. Bush, who has voiced great confidence in Petraeus, is expected to take his advice.

One of the leading war critics on Capitol Hill, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., was clearly disappointed with Petraeus' recommendation. The chairman of the Armed Services Committee has long argued that U.S. forces are a crutch for the Iraqis.

"I think this open-ended pause takes the pressure off the Iraqi leaders to take responsibility for their own country," Levin said.

The report by Petraeus and Crocker comes as violence in Iraq has spiked, raising questions about the success of the troop surge President Bush started more than a year ago and has touted as a success.

U.S. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee where the general and the ambassador testified in the afternoon, said the surge was "exhausting" the country.

"He (Bush) can't tell us when or even if Iraq will be able to stand on its own two feet. He can't tell us when or even if this war will end," Biden said.

Even as Petraeus and Crocker delivered their report to lawmakers, 11 U.S. troops died in 48 hours of fighting in Iraq. Altogether, the war has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 U.S. troops and cost taxpayers about $500 billion.

Petraeus said the recent increase in fighting was an anomaly and that overall violence has come down considerably under the surge. But security is still fragile, he said.

"The military surge has achieved progress, but that progress is reversible," he said.

The Iraqis have recruited more than 400,000 army and security troops. In the recent flare-up of violence in the port town of Basra, Petraeus said Iraqi forces took the lead, although the outcome of the fighting was inconclusive.

Crocker told senators that Iraq is making some of the political progress, such as the scheduling of provincial elections, that it must in order to bolster the conditions necessary for an eventual U.S. withdrawal. But he acknowledged it has been slow, hard work.

"Looking ahead, mister chairman almost everything about Iraq is hard," he said. "But hard does not mean hopeless. ... Our current course is hard, but it's working. ... We need to stay with it."

Congress will be debating that issue when it considers Iraq war funding later this month, and the testimony by Petraeus and Crocker is likely to weigh heavily in that.

Their first congressional report in September — where they convincingly argued the surge was working — changed the dialogue on Iraq and put war opponents on their heels.

Today's appearance by the general and ambassador also set the stage for some political theater. All three presidential candidates — U.S. Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Barack Obama, D-Ill — sit on the Senate committees that are holding hearings.

Reach John Yaukey at jyaukey@gns.gannett.com.