Pertraeus and Crocker on FNC last night…
The Politico’s Daniel W. Reilly blogs about General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker appearing on FNC last night…
America’s two top officials in Iraq - Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker - appeared on Fox News Monday night, dismissing claims they had manipulated their latest assessments of the war in Iraq at the behest of the White House. “It was my assessment,” Petraeus said. “Those [findings] were mine. They were not the White House’s, or anyone else’s.” Crocker offered a similar assertion of independence, saying he did not clear his testimony with anyone and the president did not attempt to manipulate his findings. Earlier, a full page ad in The New York Times by the liberal group, MoveOn.org, accused Petraeus of manipulating intelligence to help sell President Bush’s troop surge strategy in Iraq. The ad ignited a political firestorm on Capitol Hill, with House Republicans introducing a resolution condemning it. The pair sat down with Fox News anchor Brit Hume after a marathon session Monday before a joint session of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. Petraeus told Hume he gave a “forthright” assessment to Congress, saying that “military aspects of the surge have largely achieved success.” Crocker said that “the goal of a stable, secure Democratic Iraq” is “attainable,” and the “trajectory of political and diplomatic gains is up.” Still, both men acknowledged there was a lot of work left to do in Iraq, especially reforming its security forces and helping to achieve some sort of national political reconciliation. Pressed by Hume on Iran’s role in the conflict, Patraeus acknowledged, it was “harmful…no two ways about it.’’
I saw that one-hour interview last night where both Petraeus and Crocker essentially backed up their earlier statements to Congress.
It is treasonous for MoveOn.Org to place that despicable ad in the NY Times portraying Petraeus as somebody betraying his country by “cooking the numbers” to please the president and his administration. That confirms once again the radical agenda of the leftists to bamboozle this country with lies to achieve their goal of America surrendering in Iraq.
But more than that, most of the Democractic presidential candidates refused to dissociate themselves from this ad.
By so doing, they are being complicit with the message of that ad. The time of reckoning will come, and they will pay dearly. We ought not to tolerate a party with so many Benedict Arnolds hiding under the cover of George Soros and his ilk.
Comment by RGL — September 11, 2007 @ 11:27 am
Definitely not the party of FDR and JFK anymore.
Comment by spiffo — September 11, 2007 @ 11:39 am
He did cook the numbers by stopping counting certain types of violence to show a better comparison to previous years numbers. The fact that you think that’s ok is truly sad.
Comment by Steve — September 12, 2007 @ 1:35 am