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General Petraeus is due to present testimony to Congress tomorrow regarding the progress of the American troop build-up in Iraq. As a warm up, he issued a letter to all American service members on September 7th to “share [his] views of how [he] thinks we’re doing”.
Scanning over the general praise he gives our service members (which they rightfully deserve but unfortunately gives little hint to any future plans), I find the letter frustratingly blasé. Sure he makes a great analogy:
We are, in short, a long way from the goal line, but we do have the ball and we are driving down the field.
He also teases us with tasty comments like:
…while Iraqi forces clearly remain a work in progress…
The progress has not, to be sure, been uniform across Baghdad or across Iraq.
It has not worked out as we had hoped.
…it is clearly taking more time than we initially expected.
He does note a few significant accomplishments: a drop in the number of ground attacks and lower sectarian violence since the surge of troops. But alas, it’s just a jumble of comparing what little progress our over taxed military has accomplished with the future burden of monumental problems.
Closing his memo, he makes a vow of sorts that I hope he truly will honor:
I will go before Congress conscious of the strain on our forces, the sacrifices that you and your families are making, the gains we have made in Iraq, the challenges that remain, and the importance of building on what we and our Iraqi counterparts have fought so hard to achieve.
The full text of Gen. Petraeus’ memo can be viewed here in PDF format or here in plain text.
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