Petraeus: ‘We Haven’t Started The Surge Yet’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/05/petraeus-surge/

Petraeus: ‘We Haven’t Started The Surge Yet’

In April, during the congressional debate over war funding, Gen. David Petraeus pushed back against a withdrawal timeline from Iraq “because we’re only about two months into the surge,” assuring Congress that he would be able to report on progress in September:

We’re only about two months into the surge. We won’t have all the forces on the ground until mid-June and I pointed that out to them, and noted that Ambassador Crocker and I would be doing an assessment in early September and provide that to our respective bosses at that time.

But now that the debate on timelines has passed, Petraeus is asking for even more time. Today in an interview with Lara Logan of CBS News, Petraeus tried to argue that the surge hasn’t even started yet:

We haven’t started the surge — the full surge — yet. So let me have a few months.

Watch it at link~

Petraeus also recently backtracked on his promise to provide an assessment in September and said, “I don’t think we’ll have anything definitive in September.”

There is no doubt that escalation is underway. President Bush announced his escalation plan on Jan. 10, but even before that date, the Pentagon had started sending additional troops to Iraq. Despite a brief lull at the beginning of the surge, sectarian murders in Iraq are on the rise again. Car bombings, chlorine bombs, and the use of children as bombers have all also increased. May was not only the deadliest month for U.S. troops in 2007, but also the third deadliest month in the entire war.

Digg It!

Transcript:

LOGAN: General Petraeus acknowledged the last few months here have been deadly, with U.S. casualties soaring. Fifteen died just this past weekend. That will be one of the issues he faces when he testifies on the progress of the surge in September.

: Is there anything you see so far that would indicate you would recommend a withdrawal?

: We haven’t started the surge — the full surge — yet. So let me have a few months. I’ll answer that in September.

[bahrbearian]

1. Is he learning his Diplomacy from Condi, or Dick?

[Solly Mack]

2. LOLOLOLOL Name a tank after the fucker and be done with it already

[bananarepublican]

9. Maybe they should rename the 'Sidewinder' air to air missile the 'Patreus'! n/t

[leftofthedial]

3. we need to purge the goddamned military of these ideologue fascist fucks

they don't even give a shit that so many are dying for nothing but Halliburton's money and a hollow, failed, utterly discredited political ideology. Murdering, lying prick.

[Lex]

4. Evil lying double-talking bastards.

nt

[catmandu57]

5. September will slip into December

give us more time, December will slip into march, give us more time, March will slip into .....

[sampsonblk]

7. Yep

Same game they have been playing for years.

[Coexist]

6. WTF? The FULL surge.

give me a break.

[Lex]

8. Kicked and Recommended.

nt

[MadBadger]

10. You knew this was going to happen

Petraeus and Bush will constantly say whenever asked that the surge has not begun, whenever more bad things happen.

[cui bono]

11. JFC!!! nt

[libodem]

12. We need to get the hell out!

More troops=more targets. Make this POS a private military expedition. Leave those Blackwater bastards and let Haliburton cook, clean and wash clothes for them. They are making the Oil private for the oil companies. Get our boys home. This house to house, gorilla warfare is the most dangerous, ludicrous, misadventure, ever. All the stupid patrols over IED infested roads is brainless, too. Put our men and women on those safe bases and let them push paper. Give that fuckin' oil to Halliburton and Cheney, and bring our troops home.

[rucky]

13. They got the money... what's keeping 'em?

I guess our Democratic congress will have to give them more time come September.

for the challenged: :sarcasm:

[FloridaJudy]

14. "We're making progress"

Hasn't that been the same line every week for the past four years? Hasn't the insurgency been in it's last throes for the same period of time?

How much more success do we need before we finally come to our senses?

[Buns_of_Fire]

17. I look at it this way...

Okay, for the sake of argument, let's say we're making progress.

Trouble is, so are the insurgents. And they're apparently making more "progress" than we are.

(When you've got two conflicting ideologies hell-bent determined to jump off a cliff, and racing to get there, is it going to matter in the end who gets there first?)

[Johonny]

15. am I the only one that hears

General "Be tray us" everytime someone says his name.

[City Lights]

25. Nope. I hear the same thing!

:hi:

[Marr]

16. And just like that, the DLC "give 'em some rope" strategy is destroyed.

I think the Democrats that voted for that spending bill did it with September in mind. The idiots thought the Republicans would be trapped by their promises of improvement by September or some such thing- as if they haven't continually rewritten history up to this point already. I mean- if you can change the REASON you invaded a country after the fact, surely moving a little benchmark date from September 07 to something more election-friendly is no trouble at all.

[tsuki]

18. Can anyone say Westmoreland? nt

[Hubert Flottz]

19. General Betrayus will do just like General Peter Pace and

do or say anything Bush wants. They are losing the fight for air because their noses are so far up Bush's ass!

I'll semi-forgive the democrats for waiting until September, but after that I expect them to take some real steps to end this stupid bloody murder for oil in Iraq.

[Screwfly]

20. Good God

All this pleading to just "Give the surge a chance" means they're really going to stick it to the troops. I think we're going to see an end to units rotating in and out of Iraq; units will just be left there permanently while the army shovels in more and more replacements. I wonder when on Bush timeline drafting anybody that can carry a rifle like the Nazis did in 1945 occurs.

[salin]

21. So the tenuous support of many GOP congressional folks - who

see their reelection hopes continuing to dwindle - who were convinced to "wait" for progress in September ... and have gone on the record with that little excuse for ongoing support (ala "one last try..." and "wait for the report IN SEPTEMBER") - are going to do what exactly in September?

What is predictable is that there will be no report and the same tired rhetoric will be pushed out of the WH and sold as the word of the Pentagon (in BUsh's world he is just responding to what the generals tell him - of course those who disagree are purged...)

What is less predictable is how the political calculus will playout on the Hill with the GOP. Further splintering, no doubt - but how much?

[La_Fourmi_Rouge]

22. He's bucking for another star.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

23. Let's play Compare and Contrast!

Exhibit A:

“I don’t think we’ll have anything definitive in September.”

Exhibit B:

: We haven’t started the surge — the full surge — yet. So let me have a few months. I’ll answer that in September.



Or we could just play Why Bother.

[Supersedeas]

24. Pet boy is sounding more and more like a politician.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

35. And less like someone who has Other Men under his Command. n/t

[malaise]

26. Well the surge in bombings

has sure begun.

[City Lights]

27. Define "surge," General Betrayus, Sir!

Ugh.

[MLFerrell]

28. Let me guess...

They won't have started the "full surge" until every American of military age has been drafted and sent to that hellhole. And even then they'll say, "We haven't started the 'full surge' yet. In about eighteen years, the increased birth rate that we see today will translate into a 20% increase in available fodder, er, I mean 'troop strength'. THAT'S when the 'full surge' will begin!"

:puke:

[spanone]

29. Anyone who thinks Petraeus is NOT a politician is a fool.

[RedStateShame]

30. "That depends on what your definition of 'surge' is."

[Jacobin]

31. The Friedman Unit doesn't start until a while later

:eyes:

[rucky]

32. K&R, people. Don't say you didn't see this coming in September! n/t

[Drifter]

33. If announcing a timeline for withdrawl is bad ...

then announcing a surge is 1000% worse.
Doesn't this essentially give away our plan to the enemy.

They are hitting us hard now (pre-surge), when the full surge is underway, my guess is that there will be very little violence until the surge numbers are reduced (because of unbelievable success). Violence will then go through the roof. We will then start seeing the kind of body count numbers reminiscent of Vietnam.

Cheers
Drifter

[tabasco]

34. Bootlicking, cowardly yes-man spouts the party line.

I'm sooooooooo surprised.

[blues90]

36. Makes me wonder what the surge is aimed at -

Iran perhaps ?

[sniffa]

37. just give me another chance

if that doesn't work, just give me another. if that doesn't work, then it's your fauLt for damaging the troops' moraLe.