But we have known that all along. It just that we have never had enough manpower to stay in place and maintain better security. That is also true of the surge -- troop levels are peaking right now and will soon start falling. It is why our policy has been called whack-a-mole and the surge is just more of the same policy. It is just another example of the Bush administration sending out troops into battle and not giving them the resources to win.

i don't want to get into the republican tactics or calling people who disagree with me traitors.
But how else can you describe the administration policy of not providing the military the resources they require to achieve the task the administration has ordered them to achieve.

unless there's evidence that the number of fake IEDs has gone down while the number of real IEDs has remained constant, there's no scandal here.

Do you think this administration deserves a presumption of honesty?

this isn’t anything particularly new or insightful. Perhaps that’s an unrealistic expectation for a topic so intensely scrutinized

Sure, which is why the righty meme of "wait until he talks before criticizing!" was so preposterous. Everyone knew exactly what he'd say: he'd give various vague and largely conclusory statements of modest success, and then ask for another Friedman unit or two. This is only the 4th or 5th time we've heard the same thing, so it doesn't take a genius to figure out what he'd say with a good degree of specificity.

Pour encourager les autres? The idea is not without some charm ....

Check out the slide 'Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs)', particularly this note:

"Total IEDs= IED explosions + IEDsfound + IED hoaxes"

I'd hang Petraeus on the spot, just for presenting that slide. J*s*s H F*cking Chr*st - using 'hoaxes' as part of the total?!?!?!?

If there's any possible honest doubt about Petraeus' honesty, that did it.
(hat tips: Balloon Juice, Washington Monthly)

I remember an interesting article from September, 2004, by a general who had been in Iraq, talking all sorts of nice things about Iraqi forces, about how they were growing, and that Good Things were expected Any Day Now. Too bad things didn't work out. I wonder where the author, General Petraeus, is now.

James, do you have any doubts about what Petraeus is selling?

Oh, by all means. The questions aren't really military, though, but political. Ultimately, Crocker's testimony will be more interesting than his.

Crooked Timber

Kevin Drum (Washington Monthly) has been doing a great job over the past few days - somebody needs to take some Ph.D.'s from some of the Very Serious People in the foreign policy community, and give them to Kevin:
discussion of accusations aginst Petraeus

The Chaos Hawks

Seasonality revisited

Seasonality (of casualties)

James, do you have any doubts about what Petraeus is selling?

Republican presidential candidate, Duncan Hunter of California, discovered a plot by Terrorist, AKA "People" speaking out during the hearing.

Read the story and see the Video about Terror on TV!

http://www.hotconflict.com/blog/2007/09/presidential-ca.html

Of course, he's submitted an opening statement in writing, a summary of his expected testimony -- right?

Apparently, not until the hearings were getting underway.