Day By Day

Monday, September 10, 2007

Primary Sources: The Petraeus Report

General Petraeus' prepared statement is here.

Ambassador Crocker's prepared statement is here.

Here's a link to the General's charts illustrating his major points.

Here's a transcript of the first half of the question period.

Commentary:

The Times [of London] sees the testimony as a "turning point" for America in Iraq. [here]

The WaPo sees no turning point, instead it says General Petraeus simply "kicked the can" down the road. [here]

Ralph Peters says that none of this matters because minds were already made up before the General opened his mouth. [here]

The NYT says the administration is moving the goalposts and not talking about victory anymore. [here]


Spook 86 did analysis of the trend lines displayed in the General's figures and notes: "[they] reveal favorable trends virtually across-the-board, achieved in remarkably short order."