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GOP Sen: "Simply Appealing for More Time to Make Progress Is Insufficient"
Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN), the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, immediately cast a different tone on the Republican side than the one that prevailed throughout the earlier hearing, led by the ranking member on that committee, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
Earlier, McCain started from the assumption of what success means and seemed to take for granted the means of achieving it. Lugar's take was much different.
In his opening statement, Lugar offered a sweeping analysis of the situation in Iraq and concluded that today's hearing was actually much different than the one held last September:
At that time, the President was appealing to Congress to allow the surge to continue to create breathing space for a political accommodation. Today the questions are whether and how improvements in security can be converted into political gains that can stabilize Iraq despite the impending drawdown of U.S. troops. Simply appealing for more time to make progress is insufficient. The debate over how much progress we have made and whether we can make more is less illuminating than determining whether the Administration has a definable political strategy that recognizes the time limitations we face and seeks a realistic outcome designed to protect American vital interests.
At the moment, according to Lugar, the administration clearly has no "definable political strategy." He looks forward, he said, to discussing with Petraeus and Crocker "how the United States can define success and then achieve our vital objectives in Iraq."
Josh
Zachary
Jello, meet wall. It's 2008. The Powell Doctrine called for clear success criteria before entering combat. This war has been planned since before 2001. This assertion implies the now-entrenched troops are still seeking a clearly defined mission:
This is the same problem the US Auditor for Iraq recontruction found in 2007, raising questions whether there are any defined goals the US was using to organize contracting efforts in Iraq:
An NIE, openly unrelated to any mission with clearly defined success criteria is worthless. This isn't a discussion about success, it's about salvaging an inherently flawed mission. Then Rep. Cheney in re Iran-Contra called for open investigations. He should, today, be willing to explain why he's not open to similar investigations in re his reckless war planning.
April 8, 2008 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, since strategy entails thinking, and since the people within this administration, as well as the neocons who drive it, do not have the ability to think. Period.
This was supposed to be a cakewalk. Imagine that it didn't work out that way. No contingency. No exit strategy. Just more money funneled into more corporate interests; more of their buds taking our money.
April 8, 2008 6:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Seven months out from a Presidential election, five years downwind from Mission Accomplished and with 81 percent of the citizenry saying America is on the wrong track - with Iraq topping the bad rail list - Republicans obviously are a little restive with "no news is good news." Petraeus can't say when the end will come, he sees no light at the end of any of the myriad of tunnels, and he can't tell us how the Iraqis can or when they will pull themselves together under democracy's Big Tent.
This first annual report on the surge is setting off alarm bells that even sideshows like medal ceremonies and Presidential speechs can't muffle. Even the press seems a little tired, unable to come up with half-wit distractions like the MoveOn magazine cover last September. Phony outrage consumes a lot of energy; maybe they're low on the B-12 boost they need to really degrade their profession and grovel at the feet of power.
And Petraeus and Crocker look like they've reached the end of their relentless apple polishing.
Ah... Babylon. Pollyanna has blinked...
April 8, 2008 7:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has anybody seen Robert Gates lately? He is the one that should be answering Lugar's political questions.
Every since Adm. Fallon was fired Gates has been scarce. Right now Cheney seems to be in charge of DoD, not Gates. Cheney is the one that ordered this latest boondoggle operation that started with a diversionary attack by Maliki forces in Basra that was really a cover for a full-scale American operation in Sadr City. Petraeus is Cheney's lap dog so it should come as no surprise that he is once again betraying the American people with his "unknowable" pep talk today.
While I didn't follow much of today's testimony the phrase that was missing in action was 'regional diplomacy'.
April 9, 2008 12:20 AM | Reply | Permalink