Summing up the hearing Posted by The Editors

(From Max and Ilan)

Here's a wrap up of the morning hearings. Only four more hours to go...

1. Petraeus and Crocker refuse to tell us what our long term strategy is in Iraq, holding to the weak excuse that they can't make predictions into the future. But they have no problem making scary predictions into the future about what will happen if we withdraw. Contradiction? I think so.

2. Iran is the new Al Qaeda. A large portion of the questioning from Martinez, Lieberman, Graham was based on trying blame Iran from what happened in Basra.  But as Senator Jack Reed pointed out the Iranians are actually supporting all of the various Shi’a groups in Iraq, including those in league with the central government.

3. John McCain still seems to be confusing his Shi’a and his Sunnis.  He seems to have this recurring problem and if he becomes President and does this in some international forum it will be REALLY REALLY bad.

4. Ryan Crocker continues to present a rosy picture of what happened in Basra last week, saying that it has strengthened Maliki’s hand.  But news on the ground today seems to undermine this claim with Sadr actually picking up support from various religious leaders.

5. When asked by Senator John Warner whether Iraq was making us safer Petraeus kept hedging and stated that it would ultimately be up to history.  Not very comforting.  And for those who argue that it’s not his job to answer that question.  The President has made it his job, but ignoring the advice of other more senior military leaders and going straight to Petraeus

6. Petraeus and Crocker can't tell us if political reconciliation, the whole point of the surge, is actually happening.

Comments

[wooD]

The questioning really baffled and drove me nuts. Now long winded and meaningless can a question really be. I'm sure Petraeus had better things to do than listen to a long drawn out question that had already been answered in his testimony. Of course this usually leads to an entry on my webcomic. Sometimes only satire helps.
http://facebigelow.blogspot.com/2008/04/face-bigelow-57-face-time-on-iraq.html