I'm willing to give you another six months, reluctantly I might add, if you General are willing to give up all rights to any and all retirement benefits should the "surge" prove to have failed.

After all, that is a small price to pay for all the military and civilian lives you will have destroyed in your fantasy!

With all of these 2008 benchmarks.... could somebody run up to Capitol Hill and remind those folks.... this is 2007!

MARCH 2008 and AUGUST 2008 are NOT months away...

they are too many dead Americans and Iraqis away.

HuffPo, America does not care what Patraeus says; they want our troops to begin to be deployed. Why did you word your byline like you have? It does not reflect what TPM says. Cheeze.

Why am I not surprised that Gen Petraeus wants MORE TIME? Sure, we can stay there until the next millenium but as long as we are there, the Iraqis will do NOTHING to help themselves. Why should they when they have those "stupid" Americans spending THEIR blood and THEIR treasure? After all, if you can get somebody else to take care of you, why should you bother taking care of yourself? This is a load of crap! I am tired of subsidizing Iraqi democracy which they don't seem to be all that interested in anyway.There is NOTHING the least bit patriotic or heroic about what we are doing in Iraq now. The Sunni and Shia are going to have their civil war whatever we do...so...let them have at it but without US!!!

As a veteran, I find it difficult to believe that after four years of training Iraqi troops, that these people are unable to take care of their own security needs. I went through six weeks of boot camp, then another eight weeks of advanced training. With that amount of training, the troops there are expected to do the job, and they have done it as well as they are able. Why is it that the Iraqi forces have not been able to get it together after 4 years? Surely our military trainers are not incompetent, it must be that they don't want to follow orders given by Americans.

This was a bogus deal from the beginning, and all signs lead to a permanent occupation by US forces. Congress must starve the beast in order to cut this off, to stop it before any more loss of life. Perhaps we need to remind the Legislative Branch that they work at our pleasure, and not the opposite view. Ditto for the Executive Branch.

Oh, and for all of you that feel the surge is working, and that we should stay there, get yourself down to a recruiting office, and sign up so that you can give the ultimate support for your beliefs.

Both the Democratic and Republicans Parties are both at fault for this on going mess.

The ever consuming, commercial watching non-thinking lame mass of sheepish lemmings in the public also bares a large amount of the blame for any tragic future based on foolishness.

There has not been a viable war since WWII. The corporations and governments that exploited the people and natural resources of foreign countries and their own human resources had lead to the "blowback" by those who have manipulated by dark the evil forces. These dark evil manipulative forces include the Carlyle Group, Halliburton, Exxon, the Heritage Foundation, and many other dominating multi-nationals off shore banking criminals. Many of which are commonly defined as the neo-cons.

Sadly the "progressive" neo-liberals are totally clueless since they constantly focus on welfare based / government based earmark supported socialist ACLU promoted band aids that do not address the real issues of global economies and true democracy that is based on self reliance and individual responsibility.

Heard all of the BS before- they should just make one recording and play it on a loop.

>Stay the course
>The surge is working
>Only need another six months
>A drastic withdrawl will insure defeat as stated from the retreat and surrender Democrats
>Victory is just around the corner
>Progress is being made on the ground

AND the biggest BS
>Mentioning 9/11 with ANY linking to Iraq


Sure....got any vacation homes to sell me in Baghdad?

ALL OF THESE POLITICIANS FROM BOTH PARTIES SHOULD BE ASHAMED TO NOT PROPERLY PAY HONOR TO THOSE FALLEN FROM 9/11. BET BUSH MAKES HIS SPPECH TO THE COUNTRY ON 9/11, AGAIN SPINNING THE SAME LIE THAT OBL AND AL QUEDA HAD TIES TO IRAQ. GREAT DOUBLE FEATURE- BUSH THEN THE OBL VIDEO.

Quite a bargain at $9bil a month.

Too bad the politicians do not have to be held to the same standards as those in China. There would be mass executions from this conduct.

There is a most remote possibility that the NYT is saying that the US surge may be less than a success when they credit an unknown NYT in Iraq with contributing to this story. I think.

Agree selling pipe dreams...

Has General Petraeus' testimony before Congress convinced or changed your mind that success is at hand in Iraq?-----------------------------------------------------> http://www.youpolls.com/details.asp?pid=463

Well, that monthlong Madison Avenue 'sell-job' How could it NOT work? They did everything in their power to 'create a perception'--and the public didn't buy it?? That was just Bush's latest scam-job.

His whole presidency has been a scam-job on the public.

Meanwhile 9 more soldiers have died.

Bush wants yet one more last chance. How many last chances is he going to ask for?
In the words of Sen. Stevens: NO!!
And from me; NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOO!
Whether we stay or go, it is a bloodbath. Have we learned nothing from history? Staying only prolongs the inevitable. We will never be able to correct the colossal, infinitely stupid and tragic mistake of having invaded in the first place. There is NO solution.

Well of course they treat the American public the same way they talk and explain everything to Bush because they already know he is dumb as a doorknob. Except a good majority of the public is a whole lot smarter then Bushy, hell my dogs smarter then Bush. They have to begin withdrawing troops beginning in April of 08 becuase the rotations will be up, so the whole wait till March crap is just that!
What did anyone expect, They have no clue how to get out of Iraq, so the next best thing is to pass it on to the next administration, probably Democrats, then blame them for the failure. Oh, can't you just see their flyers now, DEMS LOSE IRAQ WAR! We can put that banner right next to Bush's, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!
And what say all those spewing remarks like, it's beginning to work, we should stay, the Iraqi's want us OUT. ASAP. So, in there new found democracy, what now your going to tell them, well ya you voted, but until we say were leaving, it's really not your country! Pathetic.

Its is not about the two parties, it is about the fights inside each party. The real parties span both formal ones. The "war and destruction" party is strong and united, while the peace and prosperity party is weak and unsupported by the population. The best people (like Chuck Hagel) will keep giving up and the worst people will keep taking their place.

The war and fear propaganda from CNN and Fox will continue, people will be told that only Hillary can win and will stupidly vote for her. She, of course, will keep the essentials, war and occupation, the same. But she will try to introduce a military draft and increase taxes to expand the wars.

Will the congress sacrifice more lives and give Petraeus more hundred dollar bills to hand out?

This headline is very confusing. It implies to me that Americans don't care about Iraq, but the story sounds like it's saying that Americans don't "care" (believe) what Petraeus says. That's a big difference. Headlines should be clear because a lot of times they're all people read.