Video: Petraeus, McConnell not quite eye to eye about surge plans
posted at 9:32 am on June 18, 2007 by Allahpundit
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What’s going to happen after September? Petraeus refuses to tip his hand but does acknowledge that the surge won’t have accomplished its task by the time he delivers his progress report to Congress. McConnell’s coy too but hints that everyone anticipates a new strategy with different troop levels come the fall and that it’s probably going to look an awful lot like Baker-Hamilton: pull back, withdraw troops, and redefine the mission to limit it to targeting Al Qaeda and training the Iraqi army. The new offensive may be a harbinger of the new strategy. At least one Republican presidential candidate is already on board.
Anticipating the power vacuum and his role in filling it, Sadr continues to polish his image as an Iraqi nationalist by taking a swipe at Iran. Meanwhile, in Diyala province, to the horror of the Shiite and Kurdish leadership, U.S. troops are forced to buddy up with Sunni insurgents. They’ve even got their own gear:
Dozens of militia members have been outfitted by American troops with brown T-shirts spray-painted with numbers and will soon be provided with cards identifying them as members of “the Concerned Local Nationals.”
The gunmen are allowed large caches of AK-47s and ammunition, and they are promised eventual positions in the Baqubah police force.
Update: Back in D.C., Harry Reid seeks to appease angry anti-war nutroots voters: “We raised the bar too high.”
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Nothing like having congress over see a war seeing how they have done such a wonderful job with monitoring immigration law enforcement.
Wade on June 18, 2007 at 9:38 AM
I’m so sick of Congress.
CP on June 18, 2007 at 10:01 AM
Jim Gilmore is a presidential candidate? Did anyone tell his wife?
Attila (Pillage Idiot) on June 18, 2007 at 10:11 AM
Who’s in charge of this mindless mess we call “congress”.
rplat on June 18, 2007 at 10:16 AM
Well Said!
Let’s see, whose opinion do I believe and respect more?
A professional military officer or a professional liar?
VikingGoneWild on June 18, 2007 at 10:56 AM
The wrong people will be blamed for this
tomas on June 18, 2007 at 10:59 AM
Why is there a rush to go back to the policies of the 1990’s? Sitting around waiting for the bad guys to get a bigger power base in the ME is ridiculous.
csdeven on June 18, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Petraeus is an excellent general. and the first one to command our forces in Iraq that actually understands the complexities of a post-invasion anti-insurgency style of warfare.
It’s too bad somone like him wasn’t in charge of the pre-war planning or much of this could have been avoided.
Bush, Rumsfield and previous commanders were more… Patton-esque rather than MacArthur/Marshal esque.
Jones Zemkophill on June 18, 2007 at 12:24 PM
One of our major problems was taking to narrow a look at history. Every time we liberated a people from a tyrannical regime, they rose up and heartily embraced their freedom.
The “logical” presumption was that the Iraqi people would follow this historical behavior.
Two ginormous problems with that presumption:
1. Those Europeans we liberated in the past had known freedom before those wars of occupation, knew what it tasted like, what it cost, and were glad to have it back. Even the Russians still had a not-so-distant history of a free society to draw upon. Much of the arab world has lived under one form of oppression or another for many centuries, including theocratic governments and indocrinating schooling (if any), which has prepared them only to obey their mullahs, imams, and other assorted clerics. They don’t understand liberty as we do, which makes them more susceptible to the “strongest man rules” way of thinking.
2. Other nations that we have had a hand in liberating from tyranny included a sense of shared familial ancestry with us, and therefore a measure of tacit trust that we were doing the right thing. By and large, arabs are taught to hate, despise, and distrust the evil, decadent Westerner. This makes it far more difficult for them to believe that our purpose is noble, and that our desires are for them to have a better future.
Freelancer on June 18, 2007 at 1:41 PM
You can’t be stuck on stupid your whole life.
tomas on June 18, 2007 at 2:24 PM
General Petraeus is the one iun whom we should full confidence. As for Mitch McConnell and Jim Gilmore, to h3ll with them.
Phil Byler on June 18, 2007 at 2:39 PM
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