Worries and Warnings

Gen. Petraeus is worried:

"We can never sink to the level of the enemy," Petraeus said by video link from Baghdad. "We have done that at times in theater and it has cost us enormously" — referring specifically to the torture and humiliation of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib facility west of Baghdad.

Petraeus said he was drafting a memo that would closer examine issues of battlefield ethics and ways pre-empt possible problems, adding that he was "greatly concerned by the results" of a Pentagon report last week by a special mental health advisory team assessing forces serving in Iraq.

"So the first step is that we've got... make sure that folks remember that that's a foundation for our moral compass... anything we do that violates that is done at considerable peril," he said.

And the White House is warning:

The White House warning came on a day when 25 people were killed near Ramadi in two suicide bombings police blamed on al Qaeda. They were the latest in a string of big car bombings across Iraq in recent weeks that have killed hundreds despite a U.S.-backed security crackdown in Baghdad and outlying areas.

"We are getting to the point now with the Baghdad security plan where there is going to be real engagement in tougher neighborhoods and you're likely to see escalating levels of casualties," White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

"We've known that, been saying it all along. We're getting into some of the grittiest security operations."

Of course, redeployment could resolve some of the worries, and reduce the need for warnings.