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Thirteen American Troops Died In Iraq Yesterday
While the General Bought More Time by James Glaser September 12, 2007 General Petraeus is testifying before Congress about what is going on in Iraq. Every six months or so, the White House and the Pentagon send somebody to Congress to ask for six more months to win the war. Every time they talk about all the progress they have made in the last six months. The sad thing is that Congress buys that same story time and time again. It looks like they are doing the same thing this time. Ray McGovern, writing for antiwar.com wrote a piece about how every one else that testifies before Congress has to swear an oath that they are telling the truth, but not this time. Congress believes that General Petraeus is such a stand up guy that he would never even stretch the facts. McGovern reports that past generals like Eisenhower, MacArthur, Schwarzkopf, and Westmoreland all "were required to testify under oath." Just because President Bush has a hard time with the truth, as has Vice President Cheney, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and then there is Scooter, and heck just about every one else I have ever heard testify from Bush's administration, would taking an oath stop the General from testifying? Is honesty so hard to have, that he can't even swear to tell the truth? Like I said, 13 Americans died in Iraq yesterday while their field commander was telling Congress he needed at least six more months before he can even start to figure out how much longer our troops will have to be there. Some things we did learn—We learned that we still don't know what victory in Iraq means. We still don't know how much longer the Iraqi army will have to train before they can stand up so we can stand down. We still don't know who we are fighting. We surely don't know how many more American sons and daughters will die, and for sure we will never know how many Iraqis are being killed. We know nothing, the General knows nothing, Congress knows nothing, and for sure George Bush knows nothing. So, it looks like our troops will continue to be killed and maimed for years to come. Why is that? We don't know. Post Script: The more I think about it, the more I think General Petraeus is lying about something. Every Congressional hearing I can remember starts out with having the person testifying giving their oath that they will tell the truth. It is almost a formality that happens every time, but not this time. The only reason I can think that they wouldn't swear him in is that the fix is in, and they know he was going to blow smoke at the American people. In other words. . . . LIE. |
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