BUSH TRIES TO MINIMIZE TESTIMONY OF PETRAEUS TO CLOSED DOOR SESSION

Jonathan Weisman and Karen De Young write in The Washington Post today that the White House (i.e., George Bush and Dick Cheney) want to restrict the testimony of "my man David" (Gen. David Petraeus) and Ambassador Ryan Crocker to a closed-door Congressional briefing. In their place giving the "report on progress" before the full Congress would be the Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice, and the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates.


"Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense."


The question can only be why?

It is obvious that Bush/Cheney want to restrict Petraeus and Crocker to the background because they fear the truth these guys would present. Iraq is a disaster, the worst foreign policy blunder of the United States in in 221 years of existence. It is a black hole that continues to grow deeper and darker. There is no chance for military victory in Iraq, no chance to quell the Sunni-Shia violence, no chance to establish or help to organize a representative government.

Is Iraq better off since Saddam Hussein was overthrown by invading American troops? No way! It is so much worse off. Ask any Iraqi who has lost a father or son, wife or child, wither from the itchy trigger fingers of the U.S. troops or from the sectarian blood-letting. Ask any one of the relatives of the 650,000+ Iraqis who have been killed since the invasion if Iraq is better off now than under Saddam.

And how about the 3,600+ American soldiers who have lost their lives in Iraq? Why? To preserve freedom? Freedom for whom? Americans in the U.S.? Iraq was never a threat to anyone in the U.S. And it would be foolish and naive to claim as do Bush/Cheney that Iraqi insurgents are going to follow U.S. troops back to Kankakee or Salt Lake City.

The Congress should not allow this sleight of hand. Petraeus promised to report back to Congress and Bush should not be allowed to relegate him to the closet. I don't mind if Robert Gates also testifies but Condoleeza Rice is just another Bush shill who has no business testifying on what is happening on the ground in Iraq.