A month ago today, Gen. David Petraeus sounded relatively optimistic about political progress in Iraq: “The passage of the three laws today showed that the Iraqi leaders are now taking advantage of the opportunity that coalition and Iraqi troopers fought so hard to provide.”
That was then; this is now.
Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.
Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that “no one” in the U.S. and Iraqi governments “feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation,” or in the provision of basic public services.
Well, I’m not sure if I’d say “no one” feels encouraged by the steps (or lack thereof) towards political reconciliation. John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Bill Kristol, and most of the Bush administration seem to tell us all the time that Iraq is nothing but a big helping of “progress.”
I don’t doubt that this will sound like a broken record to anyone who keeps up even passively with current events, but the entire point of the surge was to give Iraqis “breathing room,” which they would then use to make political progress and achieve some semblance of reconciliation. This, regrettably, hasn’t happened.
If there hasn’t been “sufficient progress” in these areas, and this is so obvious that “no one” should argue differently, then … wait for it … the surge hasn’t succeeded as a policy.
No Trackbacks To “Petraeus concedes Iraq not making ’sufficient progress’“
Don’t fear he’s got the cure:
add more troops - kick down doors - expect respect - repeat
Don’t worry. No one will hear of this since the MSM have already pulled out of Iraq.
God forbid people are still dying over there….
ok ! first
third ??
we will have another 100 years to figure it out .
David N @ 5:
Actually we will soon be leaving Iraq the same way the Soviets left Afghanistan. Bankrupt and belly up.
Idiotland @ 6:
I dont know we are all ready ( morally and otherwise ) bankrupt , the difference is our asses are in the air .
What? Petraeus! says the surge isnt making sufficient progress?
To the neo-cons thats surrender talk.. the kind of talk of a traitor..
.. maybe they’ll coin a clever nick-name for him.. hmmm.
So Betrayus is a little more concerned about political realities now that the Bush house of cards draws closer to folding?
Well la-de-da.
Iraq needs a strongman, who, with the support of the Western allies of the Free world, will tackle the islamist terrorists, kurdish separatists and the growing Iranian threat to regional stability….
those were the days… sigh
The “surge” was a time-buyer so that the Iraqi government could work out approval problems connected to those Western oil company PSAs, the theft of Iraq’s oil profits.
That still hasn’t happened, and in fact the Iraqi government says it will not allow the Kurds in northern Iraq to go ahead with the oil contracts they’ve handed out.
The Iraqis apparently intend on keeping a tight rein on their oil assets, despite the US intention to take their profits. That’s why there are so many confused and duplicitous promises, evaluations, and criticisms about the surge success, or lack of it here in the US. It’s just a cover story for the actual US goal.
“Success” is the carrot at the end of the stick. They can’t admit it’s out of reach, and they can’t claim we have achieved it — because either way we’d have to leave.
Bush bought himself some time with “The Surge,” but not the 100 years McInsane is talking about.
Samo Umer @ 10:
yea we dont want stability in middle east , not after we have worked so hard for our profits .
“We cannot win
someone else’s
religious civil war.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), on returning from a trip to Iraq, August 2007
Looks like the good general will be spending more time with his family soon…
Maybe Petraeus’ epiphany will earn him a seat at Shinseki and Fallon’s table. It’s getting awfully crowded though.
The surge worked just fine. The focus on military force distracted sheeple from the fact that it publicly redefined victory as a matter of partially rebuilding infrastructure and making some meager political process towards stabilizing the country so that someday it might possibly serve as a useful client state. In golf this is known as replacing your divot, which is expected as a matter of good etiquette but has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not you win the game.
So, the romance is gone in Iraq. Well, we’ll always have Afghanistan.
Of course he didn’t even replace the divot. Back to the clubhouse! I need a drink.
Look for the Gen. to walk this statement back before he speaks to Bush and the Congress.Something like “I meant to say”or :depends on your definition of sufficent progress”
good one, maxbaer.
How’s that whole thing of replacing competent military leaders with suck-ups going for you W?
The surge has not been a total waste. It did allow the Iraqi governement to take summer vacation last year (albeit shortened from two months to only one.)
Reading all the above posts– here– reminded me why I keep coming back to C&L. Thanks all. (Smiling, but shouldn’t be?)
I really hope and pray ( and I dont do that often ) that these warmongers dont get their way , if they do it will be because our congress is full of cowards and profiteers .
Wars should be fought by old men with rusty swords . I’m ready , I will fight for world peace .
This is, once again, blaming the Iraqis for not being properly conquered.
This is a Panama Canal-type gift (This time the commodity is oil, not trade routes) to oil corporations made to keep the US feeling like conquering crusaders and to keep oilCo coffers overflowing. and it has the added benefit of driving up oil prices, thus bringing historically high profits to an already obscenely profitable group of corporations, which are also getting billions in direct aid from our treasury as well.
and yesterday, boosh said ‘things are a little tough for some of us’.
he was NOT talking about his base: the haves and the have mores.
But but …. we’re turning a corner….
yellow dog @ 16:
not likely.
boosh’s the pet general only speaks when they loosen his choke-collar leash. this was a McCenturyOfWar political endorsement disguised as a ’state of iraq’ report. he has said nothing different than nine months ago, when they termed the surge a partial success.
24 BaScOmBe whose saying “NO REPUGS” Says:
This is, once again, blaming the Iraqis for not being properly conquered.
—->Quite right. I mean, if your country has been invaded, torn apart segregated, and occupied… And, then people complain you can’t get your act together… (My above comment [at22] was a bit tongue-in-cheek).
Sunni fighters in the western province of Anbar who have joined the Awakening “are waiting for the next opportunity,” not the next war, Petraeus asserted. “What they want to do is get more closely linked with Baghdad so they can continue to benefit from the enormous oil revenue wealth which is pouring into this country.”
Where exactly is this “oil revenue wealth”? Who in Iraq is getting wealthy? Is this the oil wealth that was supposed to pay for this fiasco? And why isn’t it?
It appears to me that Move On was right,and the General is just now admitting he was wrong.
in his own very special little way.
Oil?
They drink our milkshake.
GEE !! I wonder what Homer Simpson would Say ??
BIGBONEDED @ 31:
dohhhhhhnutsssss.
Yea, things are not working out as well as we hoped, so…………we better stay. Surprised? Another point to address with the lock down of news coverage in Iraq, is the devastation wreaked on the Iraq people via air power. Cheney and company love air strikes. Less American casualties. Since last summer the U.S. has been using air power to deal with even small skirmishes in Iraq. Got questionable activity up ahead or in a group of houses, then kick the shit out of them with an air strike. Fuck the collateral damage to civilians. Our boys come first. Screw the rest of humanity. By the way, just for the record, Osama Bin Laden and the Boys knocked down the Twin Towers,. not the Iraqi people. What the hell are the Americans doing in Iraq? Go get Bin Laden you bunch of Dumb Fucks! Do you remember what you did to Viet Nam. Even in Afghanistan your pathetic. Also just for the record it was a gang connected to Saudi Arabia that started all this shit. You know the country so close to the Bush and Hunt Family Dynasties. Remember how the Bin Laden Family was wisked out of the United States within 24 hours of NY attack. No questions asked. Bush was warned long before 9/11 happened that there would be an attack. Rice looks just as pathetic. Then there`s Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, Wolfowitz, Perle, Addington, Rove and on and on.
I`ve got an idea. Lets start a new slate. We`ll watch a couple of episodes of the Military Channel with that bald headed, gong- ho prick, and then bomb the Fuck out of the Iranians. Maybe we`ll get it right this time. They need some of that American brand of democracy.
To Steve E.
Ben Laden could not have done it or had the means.Get educated! He died in 1999.
The only thing that the surge was to accomplish was to give Bush the time to get out of town.
MY HEAD HURTS!!! After nearly 8 years of devotion to blogs and other vehicles for delivery of “news” of America’s progress down the rathole …it’s time to walk away…somewhere a deity MUST be slapping a thigh!
dont worry about iraq! bush has sent chaliby there to get this crap hole straightened out, and things are looking up!! hey wait a second wasnt shalaby wanted by the law????/ guess not!
LegallyBlonde @ 15:
Don’t know where retired top brass go to hang out and drink (probably not the local VFW), but those places have got to be getting CROWDED…
Ed-hussein-gay-agenda-win Hussein @ 27:
I gotcha and I agree.
mudshark @ 29:
I think he’s being told to back the boosh/McAsshole’s plan for 100 years of war for corporate profit
Steve E @ 34:
I read you steve , but I’m not holding my breath , these bastards are killing our country , and the worst part is they have bought huge ranches in paraqauy , no extradition , duh I wonder why ? , georgie just bought a 70k acre ranch right next to his daddys 80k ranch . Oh well shit happens ( in the jungle ) .
gee, a small batch of candor from Petraeus? Time to Fallonize or Zinnify him. He needs to be Shinsekied, stat! Or maybe just taken on a hunt with Cheney and Stoli?
David N @ 41:
Ain’t there enough land in Texas for Shrubcutter to annex 70,000 acres? Maybe near Koresh’s place in Waco? Why, buying up big tracts of land in Paraguay sounds downright unpatriotic to me…
Has everyone forgotten the 18 benchmarks for progress in Iraq?
Designed as an easy way to highlight success, they ended up being specific measures of failure.
Does any body remember the cease fire called by the militia’s in Iraq. Maybe thats the reason for the reduction in violence, not the “surge.”
It will take them forever to come around to what the left saw very clearly right away: we don’t belong there.
Meanwhile, thousands and thousands more will die.
So if the surge was working before and it’s not working now, was David Petraeus lying before, or is he lying now?
I repeat, was he lying before or is he lying NOW????
Who wants to bet his opinion changes miraculously before he has to testify before Congress about progress in Iraq? “I was misquoted…”, “It’s more complicated than just that…”, “If we give it 6 more months…”, “It’s those goddamned liberals at moveon.com that are impeding are patriotic and God-approved efforts”. Brand me a terrorist if you must, but FUCK YOUR LYING ASS, GENERAL PETRAEUS! Get Congress to condemn ME, fucknuts! I think we need another full page add in the NYT to point out what a lying SOB he is, and also to ask him to apologize to the people and supporters of moveon.com - and to every person in America.
Oh, and where’s my fucking impeachment?
The evidence is unequivocal on how we got into this illegal war. The only remaining questions are why it continues after five years, after hundreds of thousands of casualties, millions of refugees and trillions of dollars spent, why no one has been brought to justice for it and why we tolerate an old fool running for President who boasts of continuing it indefinitely?
Hah…..hah….hah…..
What another incompetent assclown general?
Who’d a’ thunk it.
Hang in pal, McSame is on the way courtesy of the amazing, imploding Obama
campaign.
McSame and another 3 Trillion bucks.
Ought to finish…..
Us.
I would like to know exactly how we are going to know when we have “won” in Iraq. It doesn’t seem that anyone really knows and we, the people, don’t really seem that interested in demanding answers - as long as there’s another sex scandal to titillate us.