The Bush administration has made it clear that September is a critical point in the war in Iraq, when General David Petraeus will go before Congress and give a (supposedly) unvarnished account of how well the troop surge is going. But those who think that Petraeus is an unbiased and objective individual, a straight-shooter who has no political motivations or allegiance to President Bush, should be alarmed by the following revelation in a story by ABC News:
"The senior U.S. commanders in Iraq -- Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno and Gen. David Petraeus -- want the surge to continue until at least December and expect to report enough progress in Iraq by September to justify it, officials told ABC News' Martha Raddatz."
(here's the link to that story: http://abcnews.go.com/WN/IraqCoverage/Story?id=3236822&page=1)
So, how exactly can you call yourself an objective observer, if you're stating beforehand that you expect to be able to report progress about what hasn't yet happened, namely events in Iraq between now and September?...Especially, when the report so far is that violence in Iraq has not decreased at all over the past 3 months of implementing the troop surge? This news report is simply further proof that the plan all along was for the surge simply to act as a stalling option, a punt to kick withdrawal from Iraq further down the field, ultimately to some point past January, 2009, when President Bush leaves office.
This is President Bush's plan for Iraq. It's simple and straightforward: leave it to the next President. Avoid taking responsibility for defeat in Iraq at all costs. It doesn't matter how many more people die. It doesn't matter how much it breaks the Army. It doesn't matter how much taxpayers' money is spent. It doesn't matter what the generals say; it doesn't matter what the Iraq Study Group says; it doesn't even matter what Republican members of Congress say, or will say soon enough, as they start to feel the political heat.
The plan is, come September, for General Petraeus to go before Congress and, regardless of what is actually happening on the ground, report that although it's a "mixed picture", there are "signs of progress", "it's not all bad news" in Iraq, and we need to "give it more time", not "cut and run", because then the terrorists will "follow us home". They will say precisely what they have been saying for the past four years, with a few meaningless variations; which is that they have no intention of pulling American troops out of Iraq anytime soon, no matter what. It's about time that the press, the Congress and the American people see through these lies, and demand some real accountability for the fiasco that is Iraq.
