Petraeus Testimony: Summing Up Today's Hearing on Iraq

[Ian David]

Posted April 8, 2008 | 02:40 PM (EST)

Here's a wrap up of the morning hearings. Only four more hours to go...

1. Petraeus and Crocker refuse to tell us what our long term strategy is in Iraq, holding to the weak excuse that they can't make predictions into the future. But they have no problem making scary predictions into the future about what will happen if we withdraw. Contradiction? I think so.

2. Iran is the new Al Qaeda. A large portion of the questioning from Martinez, Lieberman, Graham was based on trying blame Iran from what happened in Basra. But as Senator Jack Reed pointed out the Iranians are actually supporting all of the various Shi'a groups in Iraq, including those in league with the central government.

3. John McCain still seems to be confusing his Shi'a and his Sunnis. He seems to have this recurring problem and if he becomes president and does this in some international forum it will be really, really bad.

4. Ryan Crocker continues to present a rosy picture of what happened in Basra last week, saying that it has strengthened Maliki's hand. But news on the ground today seems to undermine this claim with Sadr actually picking up support from various religious leaders.

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-bergmann/summing-up-the-hearing_b_95658.html




See also:

CentCom Chief Fallon: Petraeus Is ‘An Ass-Kissing, Little Chickenshit,’ ‘I Hate People Like That’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=2990081&mesg_id=2990112


http://www.google.com/search?q=Ass-Kissing%2C+Little+Chickenshit