MOULTRIE — U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., over the Thanksgiving break was part of a U.S. delegation sending a strong message to Iraqi leadership to “step up to the plate” as the U.S. prepares to scale down its forces. This was Chambliss’ sixth trip to Iraq.

Chambliss expressed disappointment in the political leadership of Iraq, but at the same time he’s optimistic about U.S. and Iraqi military operations there. The goal now is to have U.S. troops at pre-surge levels by July 1, he said.

However, too many troops withdrawn too early is risky.

“This progress we’re making is not irreversible. There still is the opportunity for the enemy to strike us, and they’re still recruiting insurgents from Syria and the Middle East,” he said.

Overall, the surge is a huge success, he said, “Even the Democrats are having to admit that now. Those who said we were in the midst of a huge civil war in Iraq a year ago, those who claim that we had lost the war now are having to backtrack because they simply know it’s not true.”

On the matter of Iraqi political leadership, Chambliss is not impressed, he said, with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s actions thus far.

“One of my primary reasons for going was to emphasize to him as well as Vice President Adil Abd Al-Mahdi it is time for the Iraqi government to step forward, it is time for them to take control of this political situation,” he said.

Chambliss traveled with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., Sen. John Barraso, R-Wyo., and Utah Gov. John Huntsman to visit troops, to meet with U.S. and Iraqi military leaders and the Iraqi administration. The delegation had frank and open discussion with the prime minister and vice president, he said. Both of them made a commitment that they would do everything in their power to call provincial elections which would open elections up to former Saddam loyalists by the end of the year, which will include divisions of oil revenues and division of power within the Iraqi government structure.

“It’s an all-encompassing piece of legislation that at this point in time they have not been able to get their act together on, so time will tell,” he said.

Success in Iraq hinges upon a stable government, he said.

“We’re going to have a presence in Iraq — a military presence — for some time to come, even all the Democratic presidential candidates have basically admitted that that’s going to have to be the case. ...We want it to be as minimal as possible, but the way you make sure that happens is to have strong leadership on the part of the Iraqi government — the administration. If we don’t see positive results by the end of the year, I think you may see a strong message coming out of Congress that it’s time for a change in administration.”

On previous trips, Chambliss has heard Iraqi leaders claim that they have difficulty passing certain laws because of in the insecurity in the region, he said.

“Now that’s changed. We’re very optimistic about where we are. We’ve made an awful lot of progress. Even though there are a lot of challenges out there militarily, it is a much more safe, more secure environment that we’re operating in inside of Iraq,” he said.

“Quite frankly, the surge is working. Anybody who says that that surge is not working simply hasn’t been on the ground or just refuses to believe military personnel and refuses to believe facts and figures on the ground. When you look at the various maps of Iraq, as we did with Gen. (David) Petraeus, you see where we’ve had success and either taken down al Qaeda by killing them or capturing them.

There’s been a downturn of violent acts over more than 20 weeks, he said. Virtually every part of Iraq has returned to “some sense of normalcy,” he said, and people now can walk around the streets of former terror-zones Ramadi, Kurkut and Tikrit. Revitalization efforts are under way, and more and more Iraqis are providing information that leads to arrests of insurgents and discoveries of caches of weapons, he said. They’ve even formed watch groups where males as young as 10 up to the elderly have armed themselves and are taking back their neighborhoods, he said. However, the senator wouldn’t be surprised, he said, at an uptick in violence just because of the success that the U.S. has had.

Chambliss commended Gen. Petraeus, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and all the personnel under them. The U.S. delegation was impressed with huge strides, he said, taken by the military leadership of the Iraqis. Today, there are nearly 300,000 Iraqi soldiers, and he is convinced, he said, they truly are committed to making sure the U.S. and Iraq win this conflict.

“Today, unlike when I was there in May, right now there’s 40 percent of the physical portion of Iraq being patrolled, supervised and security maintained by the Iraqi military. We are not even there. We are in combination with them in other areas, but just the fact that they are in control of 40 percent of the physical territory tells you what a great improvement there has been made,” he said.

Future drawdowns will be determined after the March report from Petraeus, Chambliss said.