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Gen. David H. Petraeus -- stupid or a liar
This is the text of Petraeus’ Apr. 8 2008 remarks before the Senate Armed Services Committee produced by The Associated Press. Since this will only be a pretty short piece, I will have to be selective rather than work on debunking every sentence. That will leave plenty of scope for others to do their bit. My interest is in his general view of what the US is doing in Iraq. Yes, I shall just talk to him myself! (Sorry about any info. I am repeating from earlier e-mails.)
Gen. P -- In September, I described the fundamental nature of the conflict in Iraq as a competition among ethnic and sectarian communities for power and resources.
Me -- Thanks, NOW I get it. There is competition between those ethnic Americans and Britons and the Iraqis over who controls Iraq and its resources. Sometimes the Americans and the British bomb and attack the Shiites and sometimes the Sunnis, and sometimes the Arabs and sometimes the Kurds.
Gen. P -- This competition continues, influenced heavily by outside actors and its resolution remains the key to producing long-term stability in Iraq.
Me -- Oh, my bad. You originally meant that the ethnic and sectarian stuff was fighting among the Iraqis. Could that be because the Iraqi government is controlled by the Shiite puppet al-Maliki and his forces are Shiites, too (some former exiles who received military training in Iran) and they are what are called “collaborators” and the others whether Shiite or Sunni are “resistance” fighters? So tell me why do you call it sectarian violence when the government forces fight the Sunnis and call it a power struggle when they fight the Shiites? As for those outside actors that “heavily” influence things, do you mean the US and British forces carrying out what most people assume is an “occupation”?
Gen. P -- As our primary mission is to help protect the population, we closely monitor the number of Iraqi civilians due to the violence.
Me -- Oh, my goodness. How stupid of me. My impression was that the US and Britain have been bombing the crap out of Iraq. I’ve also heard that weaponry that uses DU has been used. As far as I know, that DU stuff is causing those in Iraq including the US-British forces to suffer from radiation sickness. It is also spreading all over the world which will lead to increases in cancer. Perhaps, you yourself will now get cancer as will I, but I don’t worry because with Bush and Israel so eager to use nuclear weapons we’ll probably both be dead before that happens.
As for that close monitoring of the numbers of Iraqi civilians killed, I can only tell you that the mainstream media that you depend on to inform all of us seems to have failed to do their job. By the way-1, they also don’t seem to be reporting on the number of US forces now dead or injured. I assume that’s because you haven’t told them -- I guess that sort of info. is now kept hidden due what happened related to the Vietnam War. By the way-2, you’ll be pleased to know since you are so interested in “protecting” everyone that millions around the world have repeatedly protested against the “violence” in Iraq.
Gen. P -- No matter which data is used, civilian deaths due to violence have been reduced significantly, though more work clearly needs to be done.
Me -- As I mentioned before, since we, as in “We the people,” are not receiving those numbers of Iraqi civilian deaths, your point about their being “reduced significantly” is going right over our heads. How do we really know? Too bad, it would have made a really “significant” impression on all of us if we could have known that it was true -- and you made all those charts, too.
Gen. P -- And the tenacious pursuit of AQI [al-Qaeda® in Iraq] together with AQIs loss of local support in many areas, has substantially reduced its capability, numbers, and freedom of movement. . . . Having noted that progress, AQI is still capable of lethal attacks, and we must maintain relentless pressure on the organization . . . Defeating Al Qaeda in Iraq requires not just actions by our elite counter-terrorist forces, but also major operations . . .
Me -- Gosh, I hate to tell you, but since the numbers of those AQI guys is even less known to We the People than the number of Iraqi civilian deaths, all of the efforts you are talking about just go over our heads again. Whether you do or do not need more money for it is also something we are unable to determine. I really think a little more transparency here would enable you to “score a lot more points” related to your remarks.
By the way, you really ought to check out the Internet coverage related to al-Qaeda®. As I have indicated, some people don’t even believe it actually exists except as a sort of trademark name that some people in the government made up during the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Of course, some Taliban supporters or just people in living in Afghanistan have been arrested and taken to Guantanamo Bay and called al-Qaeda® members. It’s all SO confusing. I can remember a time when the US supported the Taliban -- but, obviously that is another story. I guess you guys don’t have very good border controls if all of those Taliban guys are getting into Iraq -- you might ask Congress for that sort of money. They’ve been awfully “generous” up to now. Oh, perhaps you can build a wall around the country of Iraq -- these sorts of walls have become quite popular today. Let’s see. Israel has one and I’ve heard about one going up on the US-Mexico border. People have such short memories. I can remember all of those celebrations when that wall in Germany came down. Sure, that was 20th Cent. and now we have all our new 21st Cent. trends. I have to tell you I hoped the 21st Cent. would be what we used to call the Age of Aquarius, an age of peace not war, but that’s just me.
Gen. P -- Together with the Iraqi Security Forces, we have also focused on the Special Groups. These elements are funded, trained, armed, and directed by Iran[‘s] Quds Force, with the help from Lebanese Hezbollah. It was these groups that launched Iranian rockets and mortar rounds at Iraq[‘s] seat of government two weeks ago . . .
Me -- Hmmmm. That transparency problem is showing up again. What do you mean by “Special Groups” and “elements”? I think you must be referring to the Moqtada al-Sadr Mahdi Army. You did mention him and his cease-fire related to the progress made, but now you are talking about “Special Groups.” He and his group are pretty nationalistic I’ve heard -- they don’t want Iraq broken up, they want the oil to remain nationalized, and they don’t like Iranian influence over their government. You seem to be implying that Iran and Lebanon are training and arming them. WELL, it’s now clear to me that you are NOT one of those “IT” types -- you ought to do some catching up on the news as presented on a number of good Internet sites that “imply” otherwise.
Hey, here’s a really good article published at the Asia Times* site that seems to debunk what you are saying. As the article says, not only are there no “Special Groups,” but “Iran has no reason to look for a small splinter group to advance its interests when it already enjoys a relationship of strategic cooperation with the government itself.” Not only do the Asians have this info. but so do a whole lot of Americans. This article indicates that whatever influence the Iranians might have on Moqtada al-Sadr has been used to restrain him. Other articles have suggested that there is a lot of black market weaponry in Iraq that the “resistance” fighters are obtaining by siphoning off oil -- something al-Maliki seems to be aware of. Actually, by not directly accusing al-Sadr related to the Basra fighting, it seems that you figure you still have some influence over him yourself. Would you think that if those rockets and mortar rounds really DID come from Iran? How about Prime Minister al-Maliki -- why has he been signing agreements with the President of Iran if he and other Iraqi leaders “now clearly recognize the threat they [the Quds Force] pose to Iraq”?
Oh, you also mentioned over $ 1 billion in monies that the Iraqi government has allocated recently “as Iraqi funding begins to outstrip ours.” Lucky for you, huh, that the US has control of Iraq’s total revenues located in the “Development Fund for Iraq” (DFI) held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. I wonder how much “they” or is that YOU have spent in total since Mar. 2003 from their OWN FUNDS. All of those US “reconstruction” companies in Iraq are pretty happy, too, I’ll bet. Oh, dear, that’s one of those “other” stories, isn’t it?
Moving on quickly, you recommend “that we continue the drawdown of the surge combat forces” with “withdrawal of the last surge brigade combat team in July . . .” Gee, this means that the main body of US troops will remain. You also say that your approach “does not allow establishment of a set withdrawal timetable . . .” That is really going to disappoint a lot of people around the world.
I’ve got to go now--as you can see, I HAVE been obtaining a lot of news from the Internet as have millions of others and it puts into doubt an awful lot of what you’ve said -- that won’t do much for your “credibility.” Also, I can assure you that those millions would really go “berserk” without that news.
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