Whitehouse to write Patraeus report

[mburbank]

From the LA times

Despite Bush’s repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government. And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report’s data.

[KevinTheOmnivore]

I'm confused...were you hoping the general would be blogging on it athis laptop?

He still works for the president. I know you don't like that, but it's the way it is. His ideas will probably be the most prevalent, and while Petraeus certainly can write, this might just mean that the staff is handling the tone, flow, grammar, etc.

You guys already think Petraeus is a shill, don't you? So why would it matter who writes it?

"And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report’s data."

And?

[mburbank]

I'm not sure if I think Patraeus is a shil or not.

And if it was his staff writting the report, I'd be fine.

But I got out of the article that the White House staff would be writing it. While this is usually done through whitehouse placed cronies, there is a pretty solid track record at this point of reports being written as purely political documents. I'd like to think if the report generally referred to by his surname said things Patraeus violently disagreed with, he'd say so, but I'd be a lot more sure if the report was being written by people working directly under him, NOT people working directly under W.

It also makes the whole "Lets wait for the Patraeus report in September" even more hollow, since sort of "I'm going to wait until I hear what I have to say in September before I make any decisions about what to do in after that."

[Preechr]

How would you know, one way or another, whether Patraeus is a "shill?" Lemme guess... it depends on what he says, don't it? I bet THEN you'll make up your mind.

So, reports are "usually" prepared "through whitehouse placed cronies," which have "a pretty solid track record at this point of reports being written as purely political documents?" Painting with a bit broad of a brush there ain'tcha, max?

Administration reports are ALWAYS prepared by "whitehouse placed cronies," if that's what you want to call em. Anything said to Congress in an administration report is going to be filtered through the Administration. It's very simple. I knew this just as well as every Democrat in the House and Senate knew this back when they agreed to it. We all also knew that no matter what this or any other Administration report actually said, your guys would simply moan and holler the same sad song they've been singing since right after they voted for the war.

The simple fact is that good news from Iraq is good news for America and the rest of the civilized world, yet the Democrat Party has placed themselves, with no help at all from anybody else, in the retarded position of needing this to be BAD news. If this report paints a happy picture, that hurts your party. How fucked up is that? Good news for America and the rest of the civilized world is BAD news for you guys.

I can't wait for Nancy Pelosi to strap on a bomb vest and run screaming through a crowded mall. You know that's next, right?

[mburbank]

You seriously think there is good news to be heard?

To whatever degree the surge has reduced violence (debatable) The idea was to give the Iraqi 'government' time to move towards political settlement.

Not only has it not, it's moved backwards.

If it makes you happy, I don't think Patraeus is a 'shil', but neither was Colin Powell, per se, and he was willing to talk a huge amount of crap in the line of duty.

[Preechr]

Colin Powell's job was to steer this country in the right direction. He did that. That was an ideological move, not a political one. Politically, the very worst thing this administration could have done is basically what will go down in history, but history will also show that America, once again and despite it's Socialist Cancer, rose to the occasion ideologically.

That being said, what we will hear from Patraeus is going to be a report on the security situation in Iraq. Patraeus is a military General, not a political hack. You cannot possibly sit there and try to sell me on the idea that you were expecting a report from a military General to update us on the political situation.

We are looking for a security environment in that country in which people can express themselves politically without getting kidnapped and beheaded. Patraeus and his "Surge" is there to serve that end. If you want a report that says Iraq's political environment is all ship-shape and hunky-dory and shit, I would kindly ask that you first prepare one for your own country, or any other Western Nation for that matter, so we can see what that might look like. Personally, I don't recall ever hearing of a free country where the political situation was anything more than a haphazard mess.

Let's all sit down and hold our own government to the same sort of standard you guys are preparing to hold that of Iraq to, Ok? How's that War on Poverty going? Let's talk about Race-relations! Wanna compare the per-capita imprisoned between the good ol USA and Iraq?

Please, please, please, Max: Please tell me by what criteria you are preparing to judge the "political situation in Iraq." I really am sitting on the edge of my seat here.

[Chojin]

Maybe it's time to buy a larger chair.

[mburbank]

"history will also show that America, once again and despite it's Socialist Cancer, rose to the occasion ideologically. "

Preech, I doubt that SO extremely, I'd bet you my life insurance policy.

I think history will view the Iraq war as a vast uneccesary debacle cloaked in ideological chin music. a turd dressed in a prom gown that a deluded public danced with until the found themselves stinking of excrement and had the temerity to be surprised.

[Preechr]

Allrighty then... Make me your beneficiary soon, cause things are definitely getting better in the world. This isn't one of those $2000 coal miner policies is it? Vince told me about you people...

[mburbank]

It's the policy I got special for submarine commanders

[Perndog]

Dammit, I tried to post earlier and Target's internet broke right as I clicked the button. I had a great dozen words or so about how you political people and especially the left wing over the last seven years are dorks and negative nellies and you need a healthy dose of optimism because it will make you live longer and may even help the world a little bit!!

[mburbank]

I'm nowhere near as down about Iraq as I am about global warming. Does that count as optimism?

[Preechr]

Being concerned about pollution is one thing... "Global Warming" or "Global Climate Change" is just more of the same anti-capitalist, anti-human, anti-anything-good you generally subscribe to. You do know your "consensus" is falling apart as we speak, don't you?


I'm gonna blow sunshine up your ass every time you turn around, Max. Smiling makes you live longer!

[Perndog]

I'm with Reechround on this one.

[mburbank]

Falling apart in what way, exactly? Not to stray too far from the point. I'm only anti-human in that I think as a perfectly natural species we have perfectly naturally grossly over succeeded in the short term creating fairly grim prospects for the long term continuation of civilization as we know it.

But we'll be way too busy fighting pointless brush wars and worrying obsessively about a few million potentially dead in potential terrorist strikes to do much of anything about the vanishing of the resource and conditions we need to stay alive until we're killing each other over drinking water, food and arable land instead of oil and 'beliefs'.

But thank GOD the surge is going well enough that next year we can reduce troops to pre-siege numbers. If, you know, things go well, and it turns out the Surge was a good idea. If the surge turns out NOT to have worked, it will be too dangerous to bring anybody home, so we'll have to continue it. If it was wrong to do it at all, we have to keep doing it. If it was right, then we can stop. So we can buy time, which was the point, until it turned out that securing Anbar was the point. Because everybody agrees that military solution isn't possible, unless nothing but military action is the only thing you can even pretend is going anything but really horrible. In which case...

Know what? I think I know who's warming up the planet. God.

[Perndog]

I think the "consensus" mentioned was the consensus among the scientists who get all of the government money that global warming is a) actually happening and b) caused by human activity.

Fun fact on that note: did you know that Mars has experienced global warming in the last century? Those people over there really need to cut down their CO2 emissions before they ruin their planet!!

[mburbank]

Your Fun Fact of Note tells me your grade school science teacher never got to proofs and causality.

[MLE]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiuRhy4CqzU

[Perndog]

Your response to my fun fact tells me that you don't know how modern science works.

Regardless what not knowing about "proofs and causality" might have to do with Mars getting warmer even though there are no humans to fuck it up, you should understand that 1) any honest scientist knows that there are no "proofs" in science, only in mathematics, although since mathemeticians run mainstream science at the moment, a lot of the big money winners tend to be confused about this, and 2) I'm right and you're wrong.

And if you can process that entire obese sentence, you understand English better than I usually give you credit for, but you still need to hire better editors.

Now let's get back to the White House and optimism or the lack thereof.

[MLE]

I wish you guys would either take jibes at each other or debate professionally, but reading the dischordant mix of the two is just painful.

[Preechr]

Everybody that posts in Philosophy et al is chemically unbalanced. I think what's throwing you off is that our mood swings actually take place within our posts rather than between them.

[Perndog]

Mood swings? It's all humor for me. Anyway, schizophrenia makes the world go round, right guys?

[Preechr]

Makes the room spin sometimes anyways

[mburbank]

Mars spins, which means when the room spins it has nothing to do with your drinking or Pern's Schizophrenia.

Am I wrong, or did Patraeus at one point say that the Quds force was one of our biggest problems in Iraq and shortly thereafter answer a question by saying that the Quds force was no longer in Iraq?

[DeadKennedys]

That's because in those scarce moments, he wiped the Quds from the face of the map. Petraeus FTW.