Questions for General Petraeus
 |
Alex Knapp | Tuesday, April 8, 2008 |
Wired’s Danger Room blog has compiled a list of seven questions that they’d like to ask General Petraeus in his Senate testimony today, all of which I think are worth asking. Particularly these:
3. Recent Senate testimony by General William Odom and journalist Nir Rosen presented a portrait of Iraq that is at odds with the more rosy picture painted by the Bush Administration. General Odom has said “the decline in violence reflects a dispersion of power to dozens of local strong men who distrust the government and occasionally fight among themselves. Thus the basic military situation is far worse because of the proliferation of armed groups under local military chiefs who follow a proliferating number of political bosses. This can hardly be called greater military stability, much less progress toward political consolidation, and to call it fragility that needs more time to become success is to ignore its implications.” How do you respond to this?[...]
7. Finally, Charlie asks, How do we know if we’re losing? How do we know if our strategy is not working? Is it falsifiable?
Much as it would be important to hear the answers for both of these questions, I doubt any semblance of either one will be asked.
About the Author: Alex has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law. He has been published in the Kansas City Star, TCS Daily, and Comic Book Resources. He joined the staff of OTB in June 2006. Additionally, he’s been writing at Heretical Ideas since October, 2001, and also reviews cigars at Cigar Jack's Cigar News and Reviews.
- Questions for General Petraeus
- LTG William Odom, RIP
- Petraeus Senate Testimony Cites ‘Significant but Uneven’ Progress
- Commander Questions NATO’s Relevance
- Campaign Stars for Afghanistan and Iraq Medals
- Money Is Fungible: Pakistan Edition
- Asking the Hard Questions
- Bush Urges Pakistanis to Keep Musharraf
- Boxer to General: It’s “Senator” Not “Ma’am”
- Fallon’s First Interview as Civilian
- Making Jobs More Expensive
- House Trades Freedom for Health Coverage, Senate’s Move
- Hasan a Muslim First, American Second?
- OTB Caption JamTM
- Taking “No” As Iran’s Answer
- Update on the Fort Hood Massacre
- OTB Latenight – Soft Cell
- Caption Contest Winners
- Breaking: Shootings at Fort Hood (Updated)
- Pentagon Expected To Ask For Supplementary War Funding. As Usual.
I can't watch the feed from here. Has any GOP member actually asked Petreus any questions at all? Or have they all just waved pom-poms and patted him on the back?
Almost no one, from either party, has asked any concise, open-ended, non-leading questions.
In general, it's fair to say that GOP senators have spent less time speaking themselves than their Democratic counterparts. Most seem confident that the General and the Ambassador will not embarrass themselves or the Administration, so they're likely to share more time. The Dems are like a basketball team playing four-corners -- keep the ball away from the opponents, so the opponents can't score. Once or twice, John Kerry messed up and actually asked an argumentative question just before giving the witness a chance to respond. Gen. P. slam-dunked him.
Number 3 looks more like a statement than a question.
Saying something is better is not the same thing as saying it is good. Are you saying Iraq isn't better? Or is the problem that nothing short of damn near perfect and strictly according to a predefined script is going to pass muster? "No war plan survives contact with the enemy," wasn't generated just for the Bush administration.
