Q Tony, the administration has been continually saying to wait until September, and to wait until the testimony of General Petraeus and saying that his testimony will be the clearest sense of how well the surge militarily is working and what should happen going forward. General Petraeus has also made, in the past, assessments about the quality of the Iraqi security forces, in Mosul specifically, and in the country generally, that proved to be overly optimistic by a considerable margin. Given that come September he's basically going to be asked to grade a plan that he, himself, crafted and has implemented, what confidence should the American people have that his assessment of his own work will be objective and honest?
MR. SNOW: You're impugning General Petraeus's ability to measure what's going on?
Snow's an ex-FOX News guy, people -- and it shows. There's answering a question with a question and then there's answering a question with an accusation. Never mind that it's a damned good question -- how can the planner objectively grade his own plan? -- Snow's old FOX reflex jerked his knee and the accusation just popped out. The unnamed journalist (they're never named in White House transcripts) held his/her ground and finally got something approaching an answer. "General Petraeus is a serious guy who sees his mission not as a political mission, but, in fact, as somebody who reports facts," Snow told the journalist.Turns out that's not so awfully true.
L.A. Times:
Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.
I suppose this is just skipping a step in the Bush formula. Normally, you put together a blue ribbon panel or commission a report by respected experts, then just ignore the findings -- ask the 9/11 Commission, the Iraq Study Group, or Donna Shalala and Bob Dole, who's recommendations on improving conditions at the VA and Walter Reed are the latest to be shelved.
Usually, Bush uses these reports and panels for political cover. It can't be said enough that the Bush administration sees every problem as a public relations problem. It's not the recommendations that solves the problem, it's announcing that someone is going to solve the problem that solves the problem. These things usually go nowhere. The only purpose is to generate headlines.
So Petraeus' report is an unwelcome departure from the norm. Instead of ignoring the report as usual, the White House will just write it themselves. The best way to make sure that the report says what you want it to is to issue it straight from Cheney's desk...
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