In a textbook case of Clintonian posturing, Hillary essentially
portrayed Petraeus as the poor sap who was stuck defending
President Bush's strategy, as she praised the military and
criticized the war at the same time. She said Petraeus had become
the "de facto spokesman for a failed policy" and she smugly stated,
"I give you tremendous credit for presenting a positive view of a
grim reality." To believe Petraeus's reports of progress in Iraq,
Clinton said, would "require a willing suspension of
disbelief."
In her statement, she reminded everybody that she "started the
morning at Ground Zero." After all the attacks that have been
leveled at Rudy Giuliani by the media for accepting an invitation
to participate in the 9/11 ceremony, will they gang up on Hillary
for exploiting 9/11 for political gain? Don't count on it. Clinton
went on to echo the Democratic line that the appearance of bin
Laden and the resurgence of the Taliban and al Qaeda in
Afghanistan/Pakistan showed that the Iraq War wasn't making us any
safer.
Most odd was that her big "gotcha" moment involved pointing out
what she claimed was a contradiction in Petraeus's testimony, but
it was nothing of the sort. Responding to Sen. Biden's loaded
question about whether he would continue to recommend a large
sustained U.S. presence in Iraq if the country were a complete mess
next March, Petraeus said he would be "hard-pressed" to do so. In
response to a similar hypothetical question about troop levels by
Sen. Collins, Petraeus said he would have to think it through at
the time. For those who haven't been watching the testimony
closely, Petraeus has repeatedly stated that he believes that the
U.S. could return to pre-surge levels by the middle of next July,
but that he couldn't make troop level recommendations beyond that
until next March, when he'll have a better sense of conditions in
Iraq. Whenever pressed about long-term troop levels, Petraeus
stressed this point again and again-that he couldn't speculate on
hypothetical situations because they were too many variables to
take into account. When Biden painted a grim portrait of conditions
in Iraq six months from now and asked Petraeus if he would still
support the same level of U.S. involvement, rather than dodge, he
responded that he would be "hard-pressed" to.
When Clinton asked Petraeus to reconcile this major
contradiction, Petraeus was obviously baffled as to where the
difference could be, but coolly reiterated his position.
Hillary is probably smart enough to know that Petraeus did not
contradict himself, but likely made a calculated decision to find a
way to "stand up" to Petraeus without being overly combative with a
popular military figure.
topics:
Military, Iraq, Pakistan
