McCain vs. Petraeus Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

So I’m a bit confused.  On Friday the Washington Post reported this:

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.

No one that is, except for John McCain who, as the Times reminds us this morning, last month stated:

Anybody who believes the surge has not succeeded, militarily, politically and in most other ways, frankly, does not know the facts on the ground.

That’s interesting.  I thought Mr. Straight Talk always tells it like it is.  But here he seems to be contradicting Petraeus.  Is it possible that John McCain is painting an overly positive picture of Iraq because he knows that’s the only way he can win the election?  Couldn’t possibly be that?  It’s not like he has a long history of hyping success in Iraq…Oh wait

Comments

[Zathras]

I suppose it could be that McCain believes that the Americans have done what they could with the surge, and that the lack of political progress by the Iraqis might be the fault of, just maybe, the Iraqis.

Hey, it's just a thought.

[Don Bacon]

What is the actual status of reconciliation? Petraeus is in the army, he is not competent in this area. McCain is not (usually) in Iraq.

The US Department of State issues an "Iraq Weekly Status Report" which, like the Department itself, from the top down, is a huge joke.

Here are the report headings in the March 13th report(pdf) under Political: "Aides Claim al-Sadr Will Continue to Run the Sadr Movement, New Congressional Report on Iraq Released, USAID Tatweer Energy Team Visits Kirkuk, Anbar Helicopter Engagement [ribbon-cutting of a new pontoon bridge, actually]."

There must be an intern, a staunch Bush supporter, at Foggy Bottom whose job is to copy news articles and paste them into the report. We don't really know the political status in Iraq. So next month there will be another US-centric report to the sombulent Congress by the victorious general with twelve rows of colorful ribbons and Crocker the spaniel. The only question is: Who will display a photo of themselves with Petraeus? Will it be Barbara Boxer again? Tune in.

[David Tomlin]

A de-de-Baathification bill has been passed. Most Sunni leaders have denounced it as possibly worse than the status quo.

Provincial elections have been postponed.

Awakening leaders are complaining about their people not getting the jobs they were promised.

Still no oil law.

[R.B.Ashworth]

And we should not forget...the ICRD(International Committee of the
Red Cross) on Sunday, 3/16/08, released it's report indicating that
conditions throughout Iraq as to clean drinking water, sanitary
conditions and accessibility of health care for the civilian population is the "worst it has been at any time within that country."