General to Evaluate His Own Job Performance?!

Pardon my cynicism, but we have watched a string of generals who have blown it in Iraq while claiming that they have done a superb job of winning us friends and allies there. Presumably Gen. David H. Petraeus will not depart from this formula. He seems to have been an incurable optimist in the past and presumably will be again this time around. He is not very good, however, in halting corruption which hit one of his own key officers per reports a few weeks back and which is totally sabotaging the Iraqi military and society in general over there. Our money goes into pockets of individuals who not infrequently have departed to Europe to build villas there with it -- per a 60 Minutes run through last year which even featured one of these guys boasting on camera about his theft of many millions of American tax dollars.

One does not have to be a genius or an expert on Iraq to see that the Kurds in the north are going their own way with a bundle of oil to support their efforts to found a Kurdish state. The Sunnis in Anbar where Bush claims peace has been achieved (and where a handful of our guys have been wiped out the past few days) -- second only to Baghdad in loss of U.S. military these days -- are playing along for the moment out of desperation because the Shiites are manifesting all signs both of excluding them from the oil goodies and retaliating for wrongs done to them under Hussein. The Mahdi Army is biding its time -- for six months -- when all indications are that our army will be at its breaking point.

And so be sure to tune in to Gen. David H. Petraeus' good news from Iraq, as it will most likely be the last that we shall have until we depart that hell hole -- along with the millions of Iraqis currently fleeing its murderous chaos.

Anyone who cannot fill in the dots had best invest in worthy real estate such as a good bridge buy here in the U.S. -- before it falls down. And guess where all our tax money is going? Ed Kent]

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The Time Has Come, the General's Here: Petraeus Preps for
Testimony on Iraq
By THOM SHANKER
Gen. David H. Petraeus's much-anticipated testimony before
Congress next week is the culmination of a carefully
choreographed White House campaign to boost public support
for the war in Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/washington/08general.html?th&emc=th
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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