Petraeus Testimony: Summing Up Today's Hearing on Iraq (Update)

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(written with Ilan Goldenberg)

Here's a wrap up of the entire day of hearings. Only 14 hours til tomorrow...

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? We think so.

2. Senator Biden made Crocker admit that the threat from Al Qaeda central along the Afghan-Pakistan border is a higher priority than Al Qaeada in Iraq.

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. 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.

5. Petraeus and Crocker repeatedly quoted Osama Bin Laden and his deputies that Iraq was the central fron in the war on terror. But as Senators Bayh and Feingold pointed out we shouldn't take our marching orders from Al Qaeda, as their strategy is to bleed and bankrupt the United States in Iraq.

6. 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.

7. 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.

8. Crocker claims that there has been a "diplomatic surge" by the United States. But as Chuck Hagel pointed out these claims are "thin." A real diplomatic surge would entail Rice, Gates, or a special envoy - people from the highest levels of the government - reaching out to Iraq's neighbors and being able to talk not just about Iraq but all regional issues.

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

Comments

[balance]

Is there an Iraq politics database?

Is there a database that details the tribes & factions in Iraq, their contact information, leadership profiles, and their grievances with each other?

And with such information gathered, do the diplomats and officers on the ground in Iraq have easy access to it?

Is there a truly safe forum for these factions and tribes to peacefully discuss and arbitrate their grievances and conflicts? What's the plan to channel and goad factions which have conflicts with guns and bullets into a conflict with words?

[aleco]

The bottom line is this: The longer the U.S. stays in Iraq, the more money Halliburton makes. Period. The modus operandi of the Bush crime family is to convert U.S. assets into personal assets through corporate conduits.

[scooperss]

I wish one of the questioners would ask the question "what exactly constitutes us winning" and hold their feet to the fire until a straight answer is provided. If time expires for that questioner, then the next one should ask the same question until FINALLY someone is held accountable for exactly what a *win* is.

[apduncan1]

Win is getting the Iraqis signing on the dotted line forfeiting 80% of their oil revenue to EXXON/Mobil, Conoco-Phillips, et alia.

In the mean time we'll continue slaughtering them.

Plain and simple.

[idrinkthere4iam]

General, I'll bet Osama Bin Laden is sitting comfortably in his easy chair watching these hearings and laughing his head off. They have all you high priced generals right where they want you. You can't leave and you can't stay. A ragtag army of about 2000 with ak47's and a few hand held radios is slowly bleeding US, the U. S. to death. That sir is the text book definition of an effective insurgency. Maybe if one of those pretty ribbons on your chest is for Insurgency 101, you should give it back.

[oracle99]

When will the United States learn to stop trying to police the whole world? Evidently we didn't learn from Viet Nam. Are we going to stay until the casualties equal Viet Nam? I hope not. Already over 800,000 Iraqis have died and more of our soldiers than the number of dead during 911. Before we invaded Sadamm told the US that Iraq would be our soldier's graveyard. They have died for a mistake, and the only way that can be corrected is to end this war. This morning all Joe Scarborough could talk about was why we are the only ones paying for the war....when the Iraqis have all that oil. This was the same talk we heard from Bush before we entered into this fiasco.

[huffyanika]

Part III in descending order:

You had to feel sorry for them, the only two people holding up the whole reputation of the war and the only two explaining it.

Their droning, mind-numbing reports -- were they designed to hypnotize, so that it would be hard to focus on the meaning of what they were saying? Or was it just a coincidence?

How many in Congress were hypnotized? How many in the House will be tomorrow -- Wednesday? I didn't notice any heated confrontations. Was this due to their being in a trance? [I noticed with horror that when Roberts was up for Supreme Court Chief Justice he did a good job of hypnotizing Congresspeople, but he used the 'Confusion Technique' (see Milton Erickson, MD, on this approach to getting people to agree with your goals; Sen. Leahy seemed especially susceptible to this: he began by confronting him but ended by smiling and complimenting him. At least one other succumbed in exactly the same way.)]

Another thing done to disarm was Petraeus' repeated use of emotional flag-waving (irrelevantly; we are talking about people fighting in an ill-gotten, purposeless war, 11 of whom got killed dead the very day before) by 'appreciating' and 'honoring' and 'standing beside' his troops. This always seems to bring Congresspersons to their very knees in supplication -- one said he was speaking 'in deference' to Petraeus. [See Oxford American on 'deference': Including: dutifulness; submissiveness, submission, obedience, surrender, capitulation, acquiescence, obeisance.] Is this Congress's role?

[huffyanika]

I had to turn it off due to Ambassador Crocker's distracting 'Hmh, uh' said at a rhythmical frequency, not two or three times in a reply but two or three times in a sentence -- every few words, almost like clockwork. His neck is very stiff, I noticed last time. Does anyone know if he has a cerebral disorder, such as Tourette's, or is it just an extreme tic.

Does anyone know, as well, if Secretary Rice has gone there, even once, to negotiate any kind of peace with -- anybody? The heads of militias, Sadre, Maliki, anybody?

Are these two individuals, Crocker and Petraeus, the only ones running the show?
And why is that?

[huffyanika]

I heard parts of it. The saddest, most despairing part was when Petraeus, in cold and mannerly language said that they weren't there to get an OK from Congress on what he was doing because the 'Executive Branch' was all that was needed to keep going. He said that without any trouble. But when he was asked questions about how it is going, he stumbled, several times.

[cindysundancer]

It's a bit alarming how often McCain mixes up the main players in Iraq. Repeatedly confusing the Shi'a and Sunni's is like pronouncing the Pope is Protestant over and over again.
Can we really afford another befuddled brain in the White House, even if it is "his turn"?!!

[julieeiluj]

Fire them and BRING OUR TROOPS HOME before they are annihilated once the oil twins give the order to bomb the hell out of Iran.

[maria1253]

The plan to stay in IRAQ is already created. Ed Schultz mentioned this on his show yesterday. (Secret US plan for military future in Iraq)so I looked it up at the Guardian's website-why hasn't the news media reported this?
"A confidential draft agreement covering the future of US forces in Iraq, passed to the Guardian, shows that provision is being made for an open-ended military presence in the country."
Here is the link:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/08/iraq.usa

Yes, it means 100 years of the occupation of IRAQ.

[AbstractImp]

All your questions are relevant and to the point - if you are not a republican.

But everyone makes the same mistake with Iraq - and this goes back to the entire nation giving legitimacy to the treasonous war crinimals who stole two elections, and yet still have a platform from which to launch more illegal wars, and to lie us into supporting them.

This war has nothing to do with liberation, freedom, democracy - how can treasonous war criminal be expected to produce social gains in anything they do? At home they steal elections and votes from minorities and the poor, destroy our rights and ruin our economy and society. Can you tell me the difference between Baghdad and New Orleans? All these neoCons produce is more dead people.

"Mission Accomplished" - Haliburton has a good profit margin; the price of oil is way up and Exxon-Mobil is having a wonderful year. Blackwater can shoot anyone Cheney does not like. And Condoleeza keeps her high profile job without ever achieving success in anything. How is the Hamas coup going?

General Odom had more substance and sanity in his interview than these two politically appointed stooges ever will. But since facts are anathema to these people, don't hold your breath looking for accurate answers, or for that matter demonstrable results.

The sole agenda is to elect McCain and keep the money machine rolling. Oh, and to pardon Rove and Cheney.......

[kburlz]

I really liked Obama's emphasis on moving the goal posts to an acceptable distance where we can get out in an acceptable amount of time. If an half-assed victory can be achieved in 18 months, and we can come home, I'm all for it.

[Heartlight3]

Obama is the only one who made that point, too. Joe Biden emphasized it at the end of the hearing by requesting that Ambassador Crocker come back prepared with an answer to that. I want someone who can come up with practical solutions for my president.

[lifeinfullcolor]

I've been saying for a long time, this is obviously the plan, has been the plan and will continue to be the plan. I was listening to Petreaus talk about military strategy, these Generals sit and reconfigure their troops like young boys with their plastic play soldiers, but need to pretend it's high tech. How are we to believe anything that they say. If we are the so called best military system in the world, why can't we train the Iraqi's, because we don't want to, this has been the plan all along. They come and say nothing, but then years down the road they'll be the ones writing books on what went wrong. I was listening to Feith talk about his new book coming out, it almost made me have to run to the bathroom to puke. How can we just let these people say, oops, I guess we made a mistake, I guess we miscalculated. The more you destroy a place, the longer it's going to take for you to clean it up.

[julieeiluj]

Is anyone else getting the picture of an imminent attack on Iran?

[liveandlearn]

not too far down the road unless we IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY and start up some real diplomacy in the region.

[HumeSkeptic]

Forget for the moment the cowardice and immorality of invading a virtually defenseless country that never did us any harm. And forget that the whole rationale for war by White House was based on lies and fabricated "evidence" designed to deceive the American people.

Forget all that for a second.

Ask the lying General and that Commander-in-Chief in the White House why after five years, with the mightiest military ever at their disposal, with all the funding they ever wanted and then some, why they still cannot defeat people with nothing more than Improvised Explosive Devices and road-side bombs?

As they brag about "progress", just last weak they had missiles hitting inside the Green Zone, the safest place in Iraq.

What a humiliation! What have we shown to the world and those murdering thugs of al Qaeda if not the utter impotence of our power.

What this General and the Commander-in-Chief have brought to our country if not shame and humiliation?

[sillyseason]

Vietnam was embarassing. Iraq has been a nightmare.

You would've thought that we learned our lesson in Vietnam trying to be the world's police... Both of these debacles were based on lies, incompetence, and greed. Yet, this one, the one Mr. Bush will carry with him forever, will cost us far more than we could possibly imagine right now.

[kburlz]

WE learned the lesson of Vietnam. The Bush and the NeoNuts didn't. They prefer the Bible to history books and other reality-based evidence. Revelations in particular.

[Hallucinocynic]

What THEY learned is that WAR IS PROFITABLE.

[Hallucinocynic]

The lesson that THEY learned, or had reiterated, is that WAR IS PROFITABLE...at least for some folks.

[liveandlearn]

bush appears to be the only one of his generation who lived through duck and cover drills without fearing a nuclear holocaust.

[HumeSkeptic]

I think from here on, it is your #4 that would provide the excuse for our continued presence in Iraq.
This is the real story. Watch how this develops. There is a concerted effort now for military action against Iran. And, so far, the case against Iran is just as bogus as it was against Iraq. They already have the Kyl/Leiberman Amendment authorizing action against Iran (which both McCain and Clinton supported) .

The bogus nuclear weapons claim against Iran having been exposed as yet another Bush-Cheney fraud, a case is being made to attack Iran by inventing a fictitious new enemy called "Special Groups" that are supported by Iran.

[Raymondf]

Put my cleared comments back on or I'll e-mail Arianna's busom buddy Bill Oreilly, and let him know how I was treated by the Huffington post. and that wouldn't be good because you already knows how he hates hate sites anyway.

[Raymondf]

come on my comment was not offensive it's been 18 minutes now I will keep this upp all night if I have to.

[Raymondf]

you keep telling me I have a comment on my comment but I can't find the comment on any of the three pages of comments you done it to me again.

[THEhillbilly]

Anyone who is paying attention and most of those who aren't could have written this article, a waste of petulant drivel which really says nothing at all. There was an interesting and telling would-be sentence, though: "And for those who argue that it's not his job to answer that question."

Why don't people like the two mediocrities who wrote this nothingness understand that the sorry mess in Iraq is a "tiger by the tail"? Do they have some good ideas about how to let go? Nope, but they can chant "Petraeus and Crocker, bad," and they can shriek " McCain, REALLY REALLY BAD." How does this make us safer? (Yes, that's a lame rhetorical question, but people like these two can't seem to stop recycling it.)

So, we pull American forces out of Iraq. Last act on the way out: Rename the country as Western Iran, just to preempt Ahmadinejad who otherwise would do it within a couple of months.

[Squirtapotamus]

"Shriek 'McCain, REALLY REALLY BAD.' "

We say it like that so that you can understand. Is it still too fast for you? The only good idea about how to let go is to "let go." But some of us have a problem with saving face and can't admit we screwed up. It's the honor thing, you know.

[THEhillbilly]

I had actually considered the possibility that my comment on that would manipulate someone into admitting that he thinks shrieking is the way to make a point. But then I said "No way. No one could be feeble enough to think such a thing, and if he were, he wouldn't be oblivious enough to admit it publicly--and sure as hell if he failed that test, he wouldn't make himself a laughingstock by congratulating himself for it." Thanks for the reminder.

[JessWonderin]

Such a lack of understanding of what happened is exceeded only by your lack of knowledge about Iraq . . . Sue-damn 's Bathists were ANTI-Iranian and fought them for 8 years . . . Maliki is tighter than the carbuncle on Rush's ass with the Iranians . . . so if Sadr OR Maliki prevail, Iran "wins" - the difference is really just how much the American Taxpayer will provide in blood and treasure - and for how long . . . in the end, Iraqi will evolve into a self defined nation - and how close it is with the U.S. depends on how long we stay . . British example in Iraq, U.S. example in Iran, U.S. effort in Viet Nam . . .

If we pull out of Viet Nam the entire region will become Communist and millions will die . . . took 58,000 but less money and time to realize the folly of THAT adventure - 'course had some of the Chickenhawk NeoCONs defended the bullshit lies they push with THEIR blood , just maybe we would have spend a TRILLION DOLLARS on American rebuilding . . . . and had 4,000 more troops guarding OUR borders.

[ESerafina42]

We're probably a lot closer to that 58,000 than people think, considering that a lot of the troops who have "only" been wounded probably would have died 40 years ago.

[Davwbaird]

What do you care about leaving a place we have no right in heaven and to be in. We trashed the country bro0ke it forever and kitrs only fitting to leave it to chalabi who sets us up. It is a muslim country mostly shia and as such is doomed to repress its people and be quite insane. That is the reality. Now if we are there for oil, than best we leave even american companies control 50 percent of the oil there. Greed and corruption is rampant among the Americans and of course there are the poor gay soldiers ours being trashed by the hillbillies.

[THEhillbilly]

"What do you care about leaving a place we have no right in heaven and to be in." (??)

I'll review my comments and try to find what you interpreted as saying that I care, but since I didn't address that at all, it looks like just another knee-jerk snit. As a matter of fact, I sure as hell wish there were a reasonable way to get out of that freakin' mess Bush got us into. If he decides to extract our forces tomorrow, the hue and cry will quickly change to "That dirty sumbitch George Bush abandoned the Iraqis to their chaos"--and I will say that's fine with me. At least there won't be hundreds of thousands of them dying due to economic sanctions and there won't be a dictator governing by mass murder.

[HumeSkeptic]

With all due respect, you said even less than Goldenberg and Bergmann, who at least summarized the hearings. And your last sentence is nothing more than pure speculation without any basis. Why would Iran invade Iraq? They pretty much control it now and would have a friendly Shia country as neighbor in the future.

[nogop]

Why must the authors here have all the answers to the Iraqi quagmire to make you happy??? I was off today and watched from gavel-to-gavel. Their report of the Betaryus/Crocker circus sideshow of bulls*it was spot on. When are YOU enlisting-or couldn't you pass the intelligence test??The Malaki regime is ALREADY in bed with their Iranan Shiite brothers-Surprise,numbnuts!!!!