How Petraeus Will Make His Case
Pictured: Petraeus and Crocker last time they appeared before Congress.
Most in Congress are “Less Than” Petraeus, yet they act as if they are “Greater Than”…check the picture below for why General Petraeus is “Greater Than” most of the bufoons who will be grandstanding and asking rhetorical questions of him this week.
Mark Thompson has an article in Time today, a sort of preview of the Petraeus/Crocker testimony due tomorrow and Wednesday…an excerpt appears below:
This Tuesday and Wednesday, Crocker and Petraeus will remind lawmakers how far Iraq has come since the “surge” of 30,000 additional U.S. troops arrived in Iraq last year. Expect at least two of their interlocutors, Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, to focus on recent setbacks — increased violence, a continuing political stalemate, and mounting strains on the U.S. military — as both seek to demonstrate to the gallery how they might run the Iraq war if elected to the White House seven months from now.
Last fall’s testimony by Washington’s top diplomat and military man in Baghdad was a high-wire act, as the surge was just beginning to take effect. A year later, lawmakers are expected to acknowledge progress on the security front, but will demand to know what’s next. Eager to preserve the fragile gains, Petraeus is expected to urge a pause in U.S. troop withdrawals after this summer, when overall American troop strength in Iraq will fall from 160,000 to about 140,000. Petraeus has said he is leery of jeopardizing the gains of the past year if the withdrawals continue beyond that.
Some Pentagon officials, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates, had hoped to continue the drawdown in order to relieve the strain of repeated combat tours on U.S. troops and their families. But Gates recently sided with Petraeus on the wisdom of a period of “consolidation and assessment” expected to last at least several weeks, and possibly months. Gates and Admiral William Fallon, the outgoing chief of the U.S. Central Command and Petraeus’s direct superior, have expressed concern that leaving 140,000 troops in Iraq will continue to erode U.S. military readiness. But President Bush, mindful of the centrality of Iraq to his legacy, has made clear that what Petraeus wants, Petraeus will get.
That, of course, is the point. Come noon on January 20, Petraeus will have a new boss. While Petraeus will hear words of praise and support from one of the applicants for that job — Senator John McCain, a senior member of the Armed Services Committee — the other two will question him sharply. “Essentially, what we’ve seen both from the Administration and from John McCain,” Obama said Friday, “is a trumpeting of improvements from a horrific situation to simply a unsustainable and intolerable situation.” Both Obama and Clinton have called for a faster drawdown. How they will joust with Petraeus could offer insights into their commander-in-chief bona fides.
(Time)
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Yep, it’s as I said in my first post on Deep Thoughts this morning:
As General Petraeus and Ryan Crocker prepare to hold their collective noses and enter the Star Chamber that is the Senate for their report (and cross-examination) I can’t help but think:
“Progressives” always seem to never
1) make any ‘progress’ or
2) recognize the ‘progress’ of others
It must fucking kill them to look up from their stack of mindless papers and see the chest of the General nearly completely covered with all those pretty colored ribbons and shiny medals … and those blinding stars nailed atop his two very broad and strong shoulders … the same shoulders he carries the weight of the shitty world on … and STILL is able to stand tall and walk proudly.
It MUST kill them that HIS relevance in this country, and the world as a whole, FAR outweighs theirs.
It MUST kill them that in his lifetime he has accomplished more than any of them could ever even hope to begin to dream of or envy.
Just keep shitting all over our General and our troops …
That’s all the “progress” you “Progressives” Congressmen/Senators can accomplish.
April 7th, 2008 at 5:07 pmShould we plan a drinking game for the testimony? I’d start with a shot everytime the General starts with “with all due respect…”
April 7th, 2008 at 5:38 pmThis super-geek can out-run, -carry, -fight, and -think his own best soldiers. Congresscritters are a breeze.
April 8th, 2008 at 12:34 amI wish we got medals like that, we only get operational medals (herrick, Telic are the only ones avalible) and an ISAF medal, which your not allowed to wear. If you serve 12 years you get a long service medal. Thats your lot, unless you get the MC or VC.
Whats the para badge on his right side? Looks like a foreign Legion one.
April 8th, 2008 at 1:25 am