Mantra Petraeus
What meaning should be drawn from the invoking General Petraeus's name multiple times in multiple speeches by the administration and their household parrots
Bush Leans On Petraeus as War Dissent Deepens - washingtonpost.com. Most obviously that they wish to create the impression of turning the war over to the Generals. Or at least the responsibility for it's outcome
Top U.S. Official Asks Congress Not to Put Limits on Iraq Mission - New York Times. Few, even among those voraciously maintaining it, believe a military solution along the current lines is possible or likely. It means as well that they believe that Petraues is a safe general. Someone embodying a determination, optimism and credibility they find useful and manageable. In this year of magical thinking they believe if they remove it, day to day aspects of the war, from themselves they can believe for a time that anything is still possible. 'Mistakes may have happened but we are all agreed victory must be ours.' And above all: Failure must not be named Neo. They intend kicking the can down the road, keeping the troops at full level through to the next administration so that it can never be said, they didn't achieve victory
Salon.com | The Iraq war is lost. Victory is forever just ahead.
These are the curious tones that fill the pages of the nations newspapers. The epitome of which was William Kristol's recent OpEd in the Washington Post
Why Bush Will Be A Winner. The commentary on Kristal's piece divided between whether he is trying to delude us or himself more. It included Howard Kurtz's piece also in the Post
Howard Kurtz - Kristol's War - washingtonpost.com, which noted the piece had at least one eager reader, Almost overlooked was an unsigned editorial about the same time from the Washington Post's own editorial staff
The Phony Debate - washingtonpost.com. An ugly gratuitous excursion into the world of opposites. A scurrilous assault on objective reality, of the sort that severely undermines the Washington Post's credibility. When it comes to that TPM's Josh Marshall pointed out that the Washington Post's editorial board consistently supported this war in its conception and execution
As Bad As Bush. This editorial is just a part of the general chorus of the war party to redefine the present, the actual and the acceptable. Much more of this sort of commentary will be seen in coming weeks as the program to manufacture a consensus moves forward. A consensus that declares victory however redefined to be necessary and achievable
Anne Applebaum - No Magic Bullets For Iraq - washingtonpost.com. But at the same time avoids discussion of how this war came to this pass; how it came to be at all. Or where it is going after 2008
U.S. Is Seen in Iraq Until at Least Õ09 - New York Times. One question that will be taken up but largely left unanswered is sustainability. Just how long can this surge be extended and kept up. Is the military leveling to the political leadership? Is the political leadership leveling with us? Further, after the surge got underway, the original scheme was forced to an initial adjustment to include deployments in area's outside the focus of the surge, the towns outside of Baghdad. This as the insurgents sought to avoid getting caught in a war of attrition while maintaining a level of socially debilitating violence. While the military seems to have dealt with this as units moved into the theater, it seems dependent on the increased troop levels. The initial plan cobbled together by the amateur imperialists at the American Enterprise Institute did not seem to envision the slightest level of adaption to U S initiative. The insurgent combatants may have started out with minimal or borrowed competence, but the crucible of war is a highly directed classroom. When I read the words of the colonels or generals only recently do I see the sense that they understand they are dealing with an enemy which will gain competence as they fight them, and continually adapt new tactics. Even then it is always coached in sour bleating tones that somehow the enemy cheats as they do this.
As the surge gets under way and a surge plus is folded in
Why Petraeus' intriguing new Iraq strategy is probably doomed. - By Fred Kaplan - Slate Magazine. It seems increasingly clear that the purpose here is to reach for a military solution (and largely with U S forces) in the absence of any forthcoming political solution. It is worth noting that an equal surge is under way among the contractor force which was quite substantial already (ranging between 80 to 120 percent of the allied uniformed force)
Silent surge in contractor 'armies' | csmonitor.com. Drifting through all this still is the Baker-Hamilton plan, and rumor and denial on the existence of a plan b to deal with the possibility that the future will demonstrate that the surge accomplished little of a permanent nature and the political tenability of continued occupation no longer exists. The current 'message' treatment that al qaeda in mesopotamia is one with al qaeda classic confuses rhetorical battles with real battles Lergely courtesy of General Bergner
Dan Froomkin - Bush's Baghdad Mouthpiece - washingtonpost.com. Yes, al qaeda in Iraq chose to trumpet a association with Bin Laden's franchise. Notwithstanding what reasons they might have it does create a minor public relations opening for the U S. It is not; though, a particularly real or militarily useful analysis. No one truly interested in defeating either force would take insight or make critical decisions based on such posturing.
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