General Petraeus climbed into his freshly starched and pressed uniform today just to throw himself at the Congressional wolves. It was essentially a public flogging of Bush’s messenger. Many of us secretly held onto the hope that the big Gen would have a moment of moral revelation. Perhaps he would stand up in the middle of his testimony and gallantly speak against the Bush administrations obviously failed plans, bellowing, “It’s all wrong! It must end now!”
Imaginary dramatics aside, the whole event felt like it was teetering towards fiasco either way.
Dozens of protesters needed to be removed as they shouted bold cries of “tell the truth” and “liar!”. The Big P even took a few punches from Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Ca) who said:
“We cannot take the administration’s assertions on Iraq seriously, and no amount of charts or statistics will improve its credibility.”
But beneath all the craziness was the number we were waiting to hear: 30,000. He has essentially decided to remove the “surge troops” of last January by the summer of 2008. 18 months! after the surge was implemented. And doing a little quick math, it’s clear that this is NOT a significant number when compared to the mass of troops who will remain.
Estimating 170,000 troops in Iraq now minus (-) 30,000 Petraeus wants out by next summer = 140,000 estimated troops summer 2008.
In November 2006 (pre-troop surge), can you guess how many troops were in Iraq? 140,000.
A bunch of number shifting magic tricks are coming out of his sleeve, if you ask me.
Popularity: 4% [?]
September 11th, 2007 at 9:39 am
Ah, another liberal blog…always so fun to read the opinions, but i’m always scouring the page for facts, and of course they are never there. You say “Bush administrations obviously failed plans” Care to elaborate? Are we talking surge, which is what “Big P” was reporting on or are we talking the entire war effort?
And I don’t know maybe i’m an old fashion veteran, but hoping that the “Gen” would have a moment of revelation? What makes you believe his morale compass isn’t set to anything but the truth? Ever met him? What has he done for you to believe otherwise? Believe it or not there are some people left in this world with a little integrity. Until he proves otherwise lets give General Petraeus, someone with a 30 year service record (thats more than you and I put together) and a Phd from Princeton, a little respect.
And lastly, if you caught MSNBC’s coverage of the event then you caught the unedited version of what goes on with our beloved elected officials behind the scenes. Now, there are some folks with some f’d up morale compasses.
September 11th, 2007 at 10:42 am
First of all, I prefer “Middle Left”. Second of all, I’m taking all the information I have available to me short of having a personal interview with the General and deciding for myself what I feel is good or bad.
As a veteran like you, I feel passionately about my country. I defended her for reasons of loyalty, pride, and love. And I’ll continue to defend her even without a uniform on by questioning our leaders, analyzing their words, and voicing my opinion for others to consider.
An elaboration of “failed plans” will have to wait for another day. Time and space isn’t on my side at this particular moment. But the numbers don’t lie. The shifting of troops that Gen Petraeus has suggested is ENORMOUSLY less than what a large portion of the population and liberal government demanded.
September 12th, 2007 at 10:41 am
I can’t help but be reminded of a recent commentary on the gas prices in the U.S. these days. Gas prices sat at $2.50 or so for a while, creeped toward $3, then jumped to $3.50. Then suddenly fell back towards a range of a few cents on either side of $3 and people said “Oh thank god, do you remember when it was $3.50?” And you have to wonder if the only reason it climbed that high in the first place was so that people would feel better about it “falling back” to $3.
The troop surge (while admittedly having reasons for being put in to practice- and being effective in achieving some of the goals set for it) seems to be having a very similar effect. We bump the troop levels while many for some time have been calling for a draw down, then we go ahead and draw down the same number that we had bumped- and spin it as a reasonable compromise.
Only difference being- people are quite vocally calling “Bullshit!”, and really- who can blame them for their feelings of being mislead and disillusioned by the current people in charge?
September 14th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hey Skitz,
You’ve hit the nail on the head with your comment on drawing down the “surge” troops. Everyone saw this coming. The Bush administration is fresh out of ideas for pulling the same old wool over our eyes. They’re just rearranging the proverbial deck chairs on the Titanic — again.