September 1, 2007, Bait and Switch (or April is the cruelest month) (updated)
I inadvertently deleted the August 25th post of the same name, so I am re-posting it, below. It, of course, anticipates the Washington, DC kabuki known as "the mid-September Iraq progress report", by law, to be written by the White House, and in fact, to be written by the White House, but in (foolish) common parlance and conventional wisdom, foolishly (I can't say that enough) believed to be the work of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker.
Ah, but assuming for the same of argument that Gen. Petraeus did write it... why should we listen to anything he says? Why don't you'all read (hat tip to Brent Budowski and Make them Accountable") this "progress report" he posted in WaPo in September, 2004. Petraeus cites the hundreds of thousands of new Iraqi recruits, new Iraqi divisions and batallions, the progress being made in rounding up insurgents, etc., etc.... In short, he was consistently wrong, wrong, wrong... just something to consider. Now back to your regular Petraeus worship, and last week's (8-25-07) post, below...
From our friends at WaPo, we give you this analysis of why exactly nothing is going to change once General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker deliver their mid-September report (written by the White House) telling us that The SurgeTM is working beautifully.
In that light, let me suggest that the best thing we can all do vis a vis Iraq is to continue extending the President's blank check to spend American blood and treasure at least until he leaves office. True, it looks like all of a few of the political "benchmarks" associated with a stable Iraqi political situation and accommodation aren't going to be met... nonetheless, given that some Sunnis have decided that "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" and have made a short-term deal against Al Qaeda in IraqTM (we arm them today so that they can battle our Shiite Iraqi Army allies tomorrow)... and that Private Beauchamp is a damned liar... all means that, voila, the blank check must continue until (at least) next April, when we can comfortably reassess everything!
Because we know that given the immense courage shown by Madam Speaker Pelosi and Mr. Majority Leader Reid, if things don't just turn out jolly well better by September April, then we just know we can count on the good faith of the President and the political courage of the Democratic leadership to do the right thing, and help extricate us from Iraq in such a way as to preserve the integrity of our American fighting forces, stability in Iraq, our national and the Middle East's regional interests.
(After the FISA sell-out-- and yes, you will both rot in hell for it, Madam Speaker and Majority Leader Reid-- all I got left is snark.)