For months, the President has been using General David Petraeus as a shield against criticism for his Iraq debacle. In this excellent column, Dan Froomkin cites the many times when Bush deferred to Petraeus as the one who would provide “an objective assessment” of progress on the ground, as Congress evaluates the surge in September.
Then, we found out that the tensly awaited “Petraeus Report” would be written by White House aides; and that the White House, despite its denials, had been pushing to limit Petraeus’ report to Congress to a “private briefing.”
Now, today, we learned that Petraeus will address Congress to answer questions about the report he won’t be allowed to write, on September 11, 2007 (no small irony there!)
Frankly, I won’t be surprised if, come September 11th, what Congress gets is nothing but a cardboard cutout of General Petraeus, with the flapping lips of a White House flunky, answering questions through a hole where his mouth should be!
Artist's Approximation
I was wondering when somebody was going to speak of the Be Tray Us Report, and sure enough there it is!
ReplyDelete