Petreaus Day

By Cernig

Can General Petreaus convince Congress and the people? That's the big question of the day and everyone is offering their opinion. I've already said that I think Saint General Pet's testimony will be entirely predictable and all I've heard so far, from both left and right, says so too (although much of the right is trying to bury the admission).

Talk Left's BTD is liveblogging the event. So is the WaPo's Tom Ricks.

I'm going to wait until I see a transcript before I try to offer anything substantative. I want to see Petreaus' actual numbers, if he in fact offers any.

For the record - MoveOn are idiots who have shot themselves in the foot today, and the Iraqi people have a better idea of what conditions are really like than Petreaus does.

Update But I do find it interesting that the newest neocon think-tank on the block, surge-wife Kimberly Kagan's one-woman sinecure which goes by the wonderfully ironic title of the Institute for The Study Of War, has the scoop of Petreaus' charts for his alleged downturns in violence in Baghdad and Anbar. (Nothing for the rest of Iraq?)

Update 2 The WaPo's Tom Ricks has the pdfs:
Petreaus' Prepared Remarks
Petreaus' Exhibit Slides
Crocker's Prepared Remarks