Some thoughts on the Petraeus hearings

In no particular order, some responses to yesterday's hearings:

• Americans still have no clear definition of victory in Iraq.
• There's no clear picture of the enemy. Worse, we have the lingering "Al Qaeda in Iraq is Al Qaeda who attacked us" problem.
• Senators need to learn to ask a question in two sentences, not ten minutes. The more words you say, the more the person answering the question can pick and choose the words to which he responds.
• At least in the Senate, the coalition supporting the indefinite continuation of the war is falling apart.
• Politicians keep mouthing words they don't need to say. For example, let's just all assume that everyone support the troops, if not everyone supports the war.
• Pottery Barn continues to be our moral and foreign policy compass.

Comments

[john]

Here is a related thought, not directly connected to the Petraeus hearings: We are in Iraq like we are in Korea and like we were in W. Germany. We just have to reconcile ourselves to that decision. I suspect Bush and most of those who think hard in the national security establishment have already internalized this fact. What remains is solidifying the infrastructure (physical, organizational, social and moral). It is the only way we are going to achieve the political end state that was the motivating factor for entering Iraq in the first place.

[FDChief]

"We are in Iraq like we are in Korea and like we were in W. Germany."

That's utterly mad. No. We're in Iraq like we were in the Philippines and like we were in Nicaragua. The infrastructure wasn't fighting back in Germany or Korea. The infastructure wasn't a Third World shambles constructed on Ottoman corruption and despotism in Korea and Germany.

Chances are, like the PI and Nicaragua, that we will fight our bloody colonial war and eventually leave behind a corrupt, oligarchic despotism. That's the poitical end state that is our best hope. The motivating factor for entering Iraq in the first place - political hegemony in the Middle East - was a chimera in the first place and still is. It's 2008, not 1908, and now when you bash the wogs that bash back.

[Barry]

John: "Here is a related thought, not directly connected to the Petraeus hearings: We are in Iraq like we are in Korea and like we were in W. Germany. "

I was in Germany in the early 1980's. I can testify that during my tour, there were zero (0) GI's killed by IED's.