General Petraeus was on Fox News Sunday saying that the the "'many, many challenges" would not be resolved "in a year or even two years." Similar counterinsurgency operations, he said, citing Britain's experience in Northern Ireland, "have gone at least nine or 10 years.'"
One measure of how badly the surge is going is that Gen. Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker have to spend so much of their time as spinners for the Bush administration.
You have to wonder who's actually running the war.
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From the New York Times June 18, 2007. This reflects my views: "Petraeus: Iraq 'Challenges' to Last for Years (From the Washington Post
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, June 18, 2007; Page A11)
"Conditions in Iraq will not improve sufficiently by September to justify a drawdown of U.S. military forces, the top commander in Iraq said yesterday."
"Asked whether he thought the job assigned to an additional 30,000 troops deployed as the centerpiece of President Bush's new war strategy would be completed by then, Gen. David H. Petraeus replied: "I do not, no. I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do."
"Asserting steady, albeit slow, military and political progress, Petraeus said that the "many, many challenges" would not be resolved "in a year or even two years."
"In announcing his new strategy in January, Bush said the troop increase would diminish sectarian violence in Baghdad and break Sunni insurgent control in Anbar province, a stronghold of the group al-Qaeda in Iraq. The ensuing calm, the administration said, would give the Shiite-dominated Maliki government time and space to reconcile with the minority Sunni and Kurdish communities, and build a unified administration that Iraqis -- including many now involved in violence -- would support."
"But since the deployment of five additional U.S. combat brigades began in early spring, the overall level of violence has not abated and in some respects has increased, according to a Pentagon report issued last week. Little progress has been reported in achieving the political benchmarks spelled out in the funding legislation as well as a revision of the Iraqi constitution to provide a better balance of regional and sectarian factions in the government."
(THIS IS TODD TALKING): This Administration has f---ed up horribly both in foreign and domestic policy. God help us.
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