Declaring that “the military objectives of the surge are in large measure being met” (an assertion which rests, of course, on how one jukes the stats and skews the benchmarks), Army General David Petraeus, Dubya’s most recent man in Iraq, tells Congress he’s recommending a drawdown of troop levels in Iraq to pre-surge levels — around 130,000 troops — by July of next year. [Transcript.] Not a huge surprise — As Fred Kaplan noted both a few weeks ago and in his quality preview of today’s testimony, the Army would run out of troops by April anyway, so this was a foregone conclusion. Also, obviously, not what you’d call a real withdrawal (although the WP story’s cited experts suggest it may be taken as the “beginning of the end” by interested parties in Iraq…and Iran.) So, in effect, Petraeus punted to next July.
For his part, US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker backed Petraeus’ “Things are Getting Better” remarks in his own testimony, and intimated that the surge had staved off a near-total collapse. He also warned the nation about the nature of our continuing commitment there: “‘There will be no single moment in which we can claim victory,’ and any turning point will be recognized only ‘in retrospect.’“
Ryan Crocker backed Petraeus’ “Things are Getting Better” remarks in his own testimony, and intimated that the surge had staved off a near-total collapse.
*mumblemumble* soft bigotry *mumble* low expectations, etc. What a farce, and pretty much a foregone conclusion from the moment this “decisive September deadline” gambit was played. It was eerily reminiscent of Powell at the UN, and even more shoddy and half-assed. I’d just laugh if the results weren’t so deadly serious. We’re surely there with 100k+ troops until Bush is out of office now, and who knows what the heck after that? And meanwhile all kinds of other problems are festering unaddressed, which nobody will be able to pay real attention to until this is over with. ’08 will be almost solely about the war now, which is probably good for the Dems, but not so much for the country or the world.