Apparently the question of the authorship of the Petreaus report has been settled. Originally, Petreaus was going to write it; then the White House was going to write it. Now, apparently, it will simply not be written:
In the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the Petraeus White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all:
A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security and stability in Iraq. “There is no report. It is an assessment provided by them by testimony,” the officer said.
The only hard copy will be Gen. Petraeus’ opening statement to Congress, scheduled for Monday, along with any charts he will use in explaining the results of the troop surge in Baghdad over the past several months.
These are people who learn there lessons. Recently a lot of folks have been talking about the suspect numbers (here and here, for example) that the war supporters have been throwing around. There will be nothing in anything Petreaus says that will be verifiable; it will all be the sort of slippery stuff that eludes authentication. This sort of testimony could be made to look foolish if:
1. The Democrats refuse to be cowed by the uniform and treat him as the Bush flunky that he has become; and
2. The individual Democrats decide to give up their TV time and use a skilled cross examiner to question Petreaus who is both informed and dogged.
I have no hope that the Democrats will expose this huckster. They will genuflect to his brass stars and vote to give him more time.
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