Rep. Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) challenged Gen. Petraeus about the 2004 Washington Post op-ed Petraeus wrote, giving an upbeat portrait of the progress he was making in getting Iraqi troops ready to stand up, so U.S. troops could stand down.
Engel (that’s him at right) asked why we should believe that his relatively optimistic assessment today will […]

Writing during the first break in the hearing.
I’m trying to listen with an open mind to Petraeus and Crocker. It’s hard, probably impossible, when the main substance of their presentations have been known in advance, and have been debunked in advance by critics who have become more and more sure-footed by years of experience and […]

This post replaces the hasty one I threw together at noon, immediately after hanging up from a 45-minute conference call between Sen. Norm Coleman and Minnesota reporters about his weekend trip to Iraq.
During the call, Coleman endorsed Sen. John Warner’s recent proposal to bring 5,000 U.S. troops home by Christmas. That gesture is designed to […]

…says the AP, citing three anonymous Idaho Republican officials.
What think?

The Washington Post reports this morning that a GAO report, due out Tuesday, will find that the Iraqi government has failed to meet 15 of the 18 benchmarks that Congress and the Bush Administration had established to measure military and political progress.
It’s hard to escape politics, selective perception and confirmation bias when discussing the question […]

I’ve been asked to appear on the Dan Barreiro program, that’s KFAN AM 1130, after the 6 p.m. newsbreak this evening.
Barreiro’s sidekick, Joe Anderson aka Mr. Phunn, is filling in tonight. He wants to talk about the Rove departure, among other things, and I’m working on a post about it. My entry question is this: Does […]