The Petraeus Paradox: Why We Can Never Leave Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/04/09/the-petraeus-paradox-why-we-can-never-leave-iraq/

In the video below I summarize what General Petraeus told Congress yesterday -- and show why according to his logic we can never, ever leave Iraq:

Despite what George Bush believes, we do not live in a black and white world. So, Gen. Petraeus is neither pure evil nor pure good. As an officer serving in Iraq, he risks his life on a daily basis (maybe not as much as the people below him in the chain of command, but certainly plenty enough -- and hell of a lot more than the rest of us). He was smart to make deals with the Sunni insurgents and Shiite militia. This -- and not the extra troops -- brought the level of violence in Iraq down for awhile. snip

The whole point of this exercise is to hand off this mess to the next president so that Bush can pretend he didn't lose Iraq. And for Petraeus to be complicit in that kind of political manipulation is unacceptable and unforgivable.

[Kolesar]

1. The Young Turks, hosted by Cenk Uygur and Ben Mankiewicz, airs on Air America Radio... eom

[Supersedeas]

2. but we will receive very little discussion of what is obvious about the Petraeus hearings

just more superficial talking points from the pundits that call themselves experts

[EFerrari]

3. I don't blame them. The "hearings" themselves were scripted

from superficial talking points. The media doesn't have much to work with.

[NNN0LHI]

4. A little fact checking would have been nice

If they would just show us what the streets of Baghdad really look like that would be enough.

But they won't.

Don

[EFerrari]

6. Amy had yet another story this morning about us bombing

a neighborhood. When the residents came out to gather the dead and wounded, they went back and bombed them again. Do you ever watch her, Don? She is about the only one on that does try to show what those streets look like.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Is this online? I have never seen it

[EFerrari]

8. I think you can stream it. Link:

www.democracynow.org

At very least, they post transcripts of all the shows. Amy and Juan are on everything 'way before anyone else -- and cover stories no one else does.

[librechik]

5. we need to stay long enough to get the violence down so we can stay forever

it's quite simple.

[EFerrari]

9. That's what I told my friend today. Betrayus said

everything is going well so we can't leave ever.

[librechik]

10. Early on Richard Perle admitted we weren't planning on leaving

that's why there wasn't an exit strategy, duh.

We are so screwed.