Reply #1: One notes that this remark comes from the lips of the Chairman of the

[saltpoint]

Senate Foreign Relations Committee, one of the few people in Washington who could sit across a table from David Petraeus and speak candidly and sure-footedly about the Tigris-Euphrates Valley and the attendant disaster visited upon its people by the current U.S. President.

General Petraeus does not have the benefit of a schmoozy confab with yes-man Dick Lugar. He must contend with Joe Biden, who is far more keen and fierce, who doesn't shovel a lot of crap on the subject of U.S. foreign policy. Just ask John Bolton.

Briefly put, Biden has just put Petraeus on notice that he will have to be at his best this week. Anything shy of that isn't going to pass muster.