In the News: Editorial Boards Around the Nation Respond to Petraeus-Crocker Testimony
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “War Without End”
September 11, 2007
“So, after six months of debate over the ‘surge’ and ‘Wait until the Petraeus' report,’ the result is: It's still too early to tell, but success still might be possible. Give us another six to nine months.
“Perhaps more details will emerge during the second day of testimony scheduled today. But based on Monday's hearing, neither Gen. Petraeus nor Mr. Crocker will stray far from the Bush administration's positions. The general is a military man, and military men don't abandon the mission…
“Thus the questions for Congress and the nation this fall are the same asked last spring, except that the election looms larger: How long does America continue asking its sons and daughters to die in Iraq? How long do we continue spending $2 billion a week there? How long do we continue to exhaust our Army, and sacrifice our greater national security, in a war that has no good end?”
Wichita Eagle, “Petraeus Report Commits to Long Haul”
September 12, 2007
“Bush may still have his margin of votes in the Senate, but the American people aren't behind him -- a deeply troubling sign for a war president. A Gallup/USA Today Poll last weekend showed 60 percent of Americans saying the United States should set a firm timetable for getting out of Iraq and stick to it, regardless of the situation on the ground.
“For years, they've heard claims of impending progress. Why should they buy it now?
“There is a huge credibility gap here, one that even a capable and admirable general such as Petraeus can't fill.
“U.S. strategy in Iraq remains ill-defined, an open-ended commitment with vague goals and undependable Iraqi partners.”
Chicago Sun-Times, “General, has Iraq war made us safer?”
September 12, 2007
“Here's what we really want to know, Gen. David Petraeus: Is America safer by keeping our troops in Iraq? And that, sir, is something you were unable to tell us on Tuesday as you spoke before the U.S. Senate.
“‘I don't know, actually,’ you said, responding to Republican Sen. John Warner's query about whether the Iraq war makes us more secure. ‘I have not sat down and sorted in my own mind. What I have focused on, and what I have been riveted on, is how to accomplish the mission of the multinational force Iraq.’”
“Yet, President Bush -- the U.S. military commander in chief -- has long insisted that our initiative for fighting the war in Iraq was to make America more secure, to win the war on terrorism. If you can't tell us how we're doing on that front, General, then how can you characterize Iraq as a success as you have for the past two days before Congress?”
Hartford Courant, “The Status Quo in Iraq”
September 12, 2007
“[General Petraeus’] recommendation to reduce battlefield troop strength from 168,000 to 138,000 - to ‘pre-surge’ levels - by next summer simply recognized the obvious: replacing them with trained, properly rested troops would be well-nigh impossible. And Gen. Petraeus' warning against a more rapid U.S. withdrawal from Iraq fits the president's policy exactly.
“When Mr. Bush addresses the nation on Iraq Thursday, he'll be rubber-stamping his own predilections.”
San Jose Mercury News (California), “Congress must demand quicker action on Iraq”
September 12, 2007
“Gen. David Petraeus is an able commander in a war that the Bush administration and the Pentagon have, from Day One, botched. But the recent military progress that Petraeus reported in testimony this week on Capitol Hill must not lull Congress into false optimism…
“Bush has no strategy beyond his faith in Petraeus and the knowledge that, in 14 months, Iraq will become another president's burden…
“The cost of the Iraq invasion, in terms of Americans' deaths and money spent, has been too high. Congress must press for a phased pullout sooner and a post-insurgency strategy now.”
Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Iraq War: Still a fiasco”
September 11, 2007
“The Bush administration has tried to talk, wish and whistle its way through the disaster of its own making in Iraq. Nearly 4 1/2 years after unleashing chaos, the administration is still trying to buy time to make something out of the fiasco that was supposed to create a peaceful, democratic model for the Middle East. Thus, Petraeus talks about indicators of reduced violence levels and knowing in six months whether there can be a larger withdrawal as the so-called troop surge phases out…
“Competent U.S. leadership might have avoided a civil war. But the issue now is the search for a political solution to the civil war, not whether one type of attack is trending up or another is trending down. In a civil war, the tactics of battle fluctuate. But Congress must question the value of U.S. forces' presence if Iraqis are merely positioning themselves in new fashions for dominating one another whenever foreign forces depart.”
Bradenton Herald (Florida), “More of the Same”
September 12, 2007
“Stay the course.
“That in essence was the long-awaited message of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to Congress and the American people Monday.”
Los Angeles Times, “Another $100 Billion for Iraq?”
September 12, 2007
“Iraq is too important to lose, so we've got to keep on trying, no matter the cost, and though it's not clear when we will succeed.
“This is the essence of the two-day report to Congress by Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq…
“Is staying the failing course in Iraq truly the only prudent course of action?”
Boston Globe, “Iraq: The Unanswered Questions”
September 12, 2007
“In two days of congressional testimony, General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker offered sober yet willfully hopeful assessments of the prospects for stability in Iraq. The diplomat and the general tried to describe the present chaos as remediable…
“But even apart from Americans' loss of patience with the mounting toll in money and lives, the reality is that Iraq's different religious, ethnic, and political clans show no signs of a willingness to stitch that shattered country back together. The police forces function as a uniformed branch of the Mahdi Army, the militia of the Shi'ite rabble-rouser Moqtada Sadr. The army is a little better, but not much. And the government, dominated by pro-Iranian Shi'ite religious parties, has no interest in making any concessions that might strengthen the Sunnis in the all-out power struggle that is expected to follow the Americans' eventual withdrawal…
“No worthwhile strategic goal can be achieved by continuing indefinitely to expend American blood and treasure in Iraq.”
Jackson Sun (Mississippi), “Petraeus testimony was just 'more of the same'”
September 12, 2007
“Those who were expecting to hear something new from Gen. David Petraeus during his first day of testimony before Congress Monday were likely disappointed. Instead of providing real insight into the tenuous situation in Iraq; instead of providing hope to a nation weary of war, Petraeus simply rehashed the same, tired "stay the course" rhetoric that has been the White House's war policy all along…
“Perhaps the biggest problem with the current war strategy is that it goes against the wishes of the vast majority of Americans.
“Americans are tired. They're tired of the violence. They're tired of the death. And they're tired of war with no end in sight.”
Detroit Free Press, “Iffy Iraq Plan Falls Short”
September 11, 2007
“If the troop withdrawal outlined Monday by Army Gen. David Petraeus goes as planned, the American military in Iraq will, by next July, be about where it was last winter when President George W. Bush launched his ‘surge’ strategy. And there is a whole lot of ‘if’ involved -- if the military gains made during the surge hold, if insurgents don't ratchet up their violence again, if the Iraqi security forces do their job, if some credible semblance of a government takes shape.
“This is not the withdrawal strategy the American people want. As their elected representatives, members of Congress need to weigh the general's much awaited report along with other assessments of the situation in Iraq and keep pressure on the Bush administration to get serious about getting out. Rather than leaving this war for his successor to resolve, Bush should forget about a conventional ‘victory’ and set in motion a significant force withdrawal that will save American lives and put Iraqis on notice to resolve their own bloody differences.”
Brattleboro Reformer (Vermont), “Smoke and mirrors”
September 12, 2007
“The Crocker/Petraeus Report needs to be seen for what it is, the latest propaganda ploy by President Bush to convince Americans that progress is being made in Iraq…
“But what they are selling is an illusion. The independent reports that appeared last week -- reports prepared by people outside the Bush administration -- confirmed the obvious. Progress is not being made…
“The time for patience is over. It's time to end our occupation of Iraq and bring our soldiers home.”
New York Times, “Empty Calories”
September 11, 2007
“For months, President Bush has been promising an honest accounting of the situation in Iraq, a fresh look at the war strategy and a new plan for how to extricate the United States from the death spiral of the Iraqi civil war. The nation got none of that yesterday from the Congressional testimony by Gen. David Petraeus, the top military commander in Iraq, and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. It got more excuses for delaying serious decisions for many more months, keeping the war going into 2008 and probably well beyond.
“It was just another of the broken promises and false claims of success that we’ve heard from Mr. Bush for years, from shock and awe, to bouquets of roses, to mission accomplished and, most recently, to a major escalation that was supposed to buy Iraqi leaders time to unify their nation. We hope Congress is not fooled by the silver stars, charts and rhetoric of yesterday’s hearing. Even if the so-called surge had created breathing room, Iraq’s sectarian leaders show neither the ability nor the intent to take advantage of it.”
Washington Post, “A Long View”
September 11, 2007
“But the commander didn't answer the most important question facing the president. ‘The fundamental source of the conflict in Iraq,’ he said, ‘is competition among ethnic and sectarian communities for power and resources.’ The surge was intended to give Iraqis the opportunity to resolve that competition peacefully -- and by that measure it has failed. Mr. Crocker suggests that with more time it may yet succeed. Still, the question remains: If the political reconciliation the president expected is not possible in the near future, should the missions of American forces remain unchanged? That's a question that the president must answer.”
Dallas Morning News, “Time to Give Iraq Notice: We can’t force progress on all fronts”
September 12, 2007
“By Gen. Petraeus' own assessment, military progress remains highly fragile and of unpredictable durability. This is no fault of our forces. American soldiers cannot force sectarian groups to get along. Apache helicopters cannot make Iraq's parliament agree on an oil-sharing accord.
“We are, at best, buying time. And that's not good enough. Washington must question the message this sends to Iraq's leadership. Instead of conveying urgency, we've become enablers. By extending the surge unconditionally, we tell Iraqis, ‘Take your time resolving political issues, we're not going anywhere.’”
Daily News Tribune (Massachusetts), “The Petraeus Campaign”
September 11, 2007
“For months, George W. Bush has put off discussion of Iraq on the pretext that we won't know whether Gen. David Petraeus' "surge" was working until Petraeus himself returned to Washington with a progress report.
“Bush's trust-the-general stance is disingenuous in several ways. For years, the president has pretended to trust his generals at the same time he fired the generals who wouldn't tell him what he wanted to hear. That includes the generals who preceded Petraeus, who were dismissed because they didn't think the surge would work. Petraeus is so associated with the surge, it is hard to consider his assessment of its success objective or authoritative…
“Polls here find that Americans aren't buying Bush's happy talk about progress in Iraq. They are watching reports from Baghdad and the flow of American casualties coming home, and they aren't putting much stock in the show Petraeus and Crocker are putting on. Congress shouldn't either.”
Yakima Herald (Washington), “Since Bush can't or won't, Congress must take on Iraq exit”
September 12, 2007
“If the long-awaited status report on the war in Iraq was supposed to be good news for the American public, it pulled up way short of being enough. Bottom line: more of the same, with no end in sight…
“Simply returning to pre-surge levels is not a timetable for withdrawal, it's an open-end, stay-put situation until either Congress steps in with the exit strategy that the Bush administration has never had -- or a new commander in chief takes over and gets it done in 2009…
“Petraeus didn't talk about any timetable for exit (firm or otherwise), only troop levels in the months -- if not years -- ahead. That's unacceptable.”