Must See TV. These should be interesting.






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Today at 9:30am (ET) on C-SPAN3
Senate Armed Services Cmte. Hearing with Amb. Ryan Crocker & Gen. Petraeus

Today at 2:30pm (ET) on C-SPAN3
Senate Foreign Relations Cmte. Hearing with Amb. Ryan Crocker & Gen. David Petraeus

http://www.c-span.org/
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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

Yep. I'm watching it now. Teddy Kennedy is once again reading what his young liberal staff sticks in front of him and getting all red-faced. His trying to act as if he knows ONE THING about the military is laughable.

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"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

If the goal of the surge was political reconcilliation (which it was) it clearly has failed.


If the goal was to push the outcome of the war onto Bush's successor: mission accomplished.

$12 Billion Dollar-a-month Quagmire Accomplished.

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

I can’t imagine what is going on in Patreius's mind while he's listening to people asking him question. Does he think I wish I was on an island or Wanna get away! This is as predictable as a Fox News segment. Barak Osama is a Muslim, Rev Wright is a racist, now show the clip of half naked women! Will we ever live in a world where the truth is paramount and the underhanded meet justice head on?

What amazed me about the hearing -aside from how predictable it was- is the way the Senators pontificate for 90% of their alloted time and then finally wrap it up with a leading question. "General, would you agree that blah blah blah..."

Senator Jack Reed (D. Rhode Island) was one of the few ,that I heard, who seemed genuinely interested in asking questions/ information gathering.

I noticed that with Liberman's urging, Petraus and Crocker were keen to blame Iran for the violence in Baghdad. And yet....



"... Once again, it was Iran that stepped into the political vacuum and urged a halt to militia attacks into the heavily fortified Green Zone, where U.S. and Iraqi officials, including Petraeus and Crocker, have their offices.

The Iranian foreign ministry called for "restraint and prudence of various Iraqi groups," an implicit rebuke of Sadr, who is living and studying in Iran .

The violence began two weeks ago when Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki launched an ill-prepared offensive against militias in the southern port city of Basra. It ebbed after a delegation of the Iraqi governing parties traveled to Iran for talks with a top commander of the Qods force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.


Tuesday was the last day of Maliki's ultimatum for militias, mainly the Mahdi Army, to turn in weapons for cash or face a battle. Far from disarming itself and handing its weapons to forces dominated by Shiites in Maliki's Dawa party, Sadr threatened to end the ceasefire he declared in August.

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Petraeus acknowledged, though almost in passing, that the clash between the Iraqi government and militias loyal to Sadr and other Shiite leaders— known as "Special Groups"— is one of the biggest threats to Iraqi stability.

"Unchecked, the Special Groups pose the greatest long-term threat to the viability of a democratic Iraq ," he said.

Although he was speaking in the context of the threat Iran posed through its support of militia groups, he did not mention that Iran also backs the Shiite-led government and that the government sanctions a variety of militias.



Besides playing down Iran's sometimes positive role in the Iraqi dynamics, Petraeus and Crocker seemed to overplay the political progress in Iraq during the period when "surged" U.S. forces and a new U.S. counter-insurgency strategy had contributed to a drop in overall violence.

One act of progress, according to Crocker, was the passage of a provincial powers law, passed days before Maliki's Basra offensive. But that law, calling for provincial elections in October, may have been a catalyst that led to the offensive.

Many Sadr loyalists viewed the offensive as an attempt by Maliki's Dawa party and the Shiite rivals of the Sadr movement to undercut the much more popular Shiite movement prior to elections in October."

Thanks for some of the highlights, Zoe. I didn't get to see the whole thing, so I'll try to catch it again later.


One glaring thing I did notice; Nothing was mentioned about bringing in other Arab and Persian forces to help police Iraq.. thats too bad. The other nations in the area should be engaged and asked to help more imo.



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this blog has an interesting take on Gen.P's charts:
Gen. Petraeus’ Charts: Sectarian Cleansing in Baghdad Has Been Key To Violence Drop

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"When I'm in command, every mission is a suicide mission!" -Capt. Zapp Branigan
The United Church of the Latter Day Tangential Tarts

Wow Zoe. Is that your only attempt at "nation building"?

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And he said unto them, Ye will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself: whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in thy country.

And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.

Um.. I don't think we're supposed to be nation building, we're tasked by the Bush Administration to bring Democracy. Or Find WMD, or Depose Saddam and Bring Him to Justice. Whichever explanation you want to follow. They're kind of interchangable when you're in lockstop with current right wing propaganda.

In fact, Bush said in debates during the 2000 campaign that he would never engage in "Nation Building." Of course, G.W. is what I like to call "Truth Challenged."

We never talk about Peace in Iraq, why is that? When you hold an entire nation hostage and you demand that they accept your brand of government and you never even let the other side in on the discussion, are you any better than a terrorist? What is democracy if the voice on the other side of the aisle is never heard from, never allowed to speak?

What's the difference between watching Geo. Bush run his war and watching a chimp use a stick to knock down a banana? You know the monkey is learning.

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There is no sin except stupidity. Oscar Wilde
The first casualty when war comes is Truth.
It is best to win without fighting. Chinese Proverb