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The Secret Weapon in the War in Iraq: Petraeus
If Bush can't talk to the American people about this war, maybe he can?HUME: Is the war so unpopular now that it does not matter what the arguments are for continuing? . . . CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: I think it matters. . . . If you can make the case, maybe the president can't ever speak to the American people again on this, but I think Petraeus can.And when he comes back in September, if he makes the case that, A, were succeeding against al Qaeda and we have had remarkable developments in Anbar, a province which had been declared lost to al Qaeda, justhalf a year ago, completely lost. We now see the Sunnis in Anbar rebelling against al Qaeda and taking up arms against them. And thats remarkable. If he returns and says were making progress and if we leave al Qaeda wins Iraq, that will make the case. Petraeus feels that he is making slow, steady progress against the myriad enemies that Coalition forces confront, but he is keenly aware that results may not come fast enough to please antiwar politicians back home who are eager to pull all U.S. troops out of Iraq, and damn the consequences. "The Washington clock is ticking faster than the Baghdad clock," Petraeus often says. His goal is to speed up the Baghdad clock by pressing for more reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites, and to slow down the Washington clock by showing gains on the ground that can reverse public pressure to pull U.S. troops out prematurely. The former is hard to do because of the mutual suspicions that grip this country. The latter is equally hard, because a few high-profile insurgent atrocities can obscure the progress being made by Coalition forces in stopping ethnic cleansing in Baghdad, which Petraeus views as his most important immediate goal. More of the story at Link and a video of General Patraeus speaking on 4/26 as well. Posted by: Delphi2005 2007-05-02 |
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