On Tuesday, David Petraeus told the Senate Armed Services Committee that, beginning in July, he needed an indefinite amount of time to consider whether further troop reductions were feasible. The Washington Post’s Josh White and Ann Scott Tyson report that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, disagreed with him yesterday before the same committee. They also disagree with the President.

These military leaders said that the recommendation by President Bush and Petraeus of 12-month instead of 15-month combat tours just doesn’t cut it. More troop reductions need to be made and they need to be made by the fall, Gates said. Otherwise the Pentagon will be spread too thin. Why isn’t it a bigger deal that military leaders who rank ahead of Petraeus disagree with the President?  Read White and Scott Tyson here.  MB

The New York Times’ Julia Preston reports that after five days the Department of Homeland Security’s immigration arm received 163,000 visas from highly-skilled potential immigrants. The visa application window is now closed and a lottery will be held next week to choose the 85,000 lucky winners.

These immigrants often hold highly marketable masters degrees and doctorates in computer science or engineering, and some in Congress (as well as Bill Gates) are calling for expanding the program. But American-born technology workers say there is already is a surplus of skilled computer people here.  Read Preston here.  MB

Evan Perez of the Wall Street Journal has a stinging takedown of Attorney General Michael Mukasey for not creating a special, central task force to investigate the mortgage crisis. Former Bush Attorney General John Ashcroft (whose legacy is looking better by the day) made inroads into Enron and other rogue corporations through a task force.  Now, even likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain is calling for a mortgage crisis task force.

Indeed, the article points out lots of reasons why there should be a taskforce and can’t find any arguments out there against the idea.  The best Perez can manage is that Justice’s reliance on hundreds of disparate investigations reflects Mukasey’s “low-key political instincts.”  Read Perez here.  MB