Posted on 07/31/2007 4:38:44 PM PDT by SandRat
WASHINGTON, July 31, 2007 – The United States will retain some presence in Iraq for the foreseeable future, the commander of Multinational Force Iraq said today. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told Diane Sawyer on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that the American people understand that the United States cannot completely “unhook” from Iraq.
“The question is, ‘What is the nature of our support, and what is the level of that support?’” Petraeus said.
The general said he is not an optimist or a pessimist. “I’m a realist,” he said.
He noted there have been times for optimism in Iraq over the past years. National elections, with millions of Iraqis hoisting their purple-dyed fingers as proof they voted, were a time for optimism.
But al Qaeda in Iraq dimmed that optimism, the general said. The bombing of the Golden Mosque in Samarra in February 2006 ignited sectarian violence, which reached damaging levels in the winter. Petraeus said the level of violence was such “that the very fabric of Iraqi society has been torn.”
He said the way forward in Iraq will be hard, but added that “hard is not hopeless.”
During his comments, Petraeus also reflected on the challenges of leading troops in a war. “There is an awful lot of soul-searching that goes on when you are the commander of an endeavor like this, and you do occasionally ask yourself if this is worth it,” he said.
“I think it is, or I wouldn’t be engaged in it. But I ask myself periodically. I think any commander should do that, must do it.”
The Surge is Working and Rats are Scurrying
Pray for W and Our Troops
This guy seems to be getting to the Libs.
Proof positive that an intelligent and articulate man with sound principles and judgement can win over at least some of the scumbags.
Bush dropped the ball on communication and public relations and his legacy and effectiveness has been severely curtailed. Most importantly, he dropped the ball on the base that values coherency and integrity in all big ideas.
Fred Thompson can turn the tide in America, folks.
BUMP
Telling it like it is.
BTTT
Truman abandoned an unstable S. Korea in 1949, four years after we freed it from Japan.
In 1950 North Korea invaded the South and Truman quickly sent troops back to Korea.
In the remaining thirty months of Truman's presidency, 30,000 Americans died in Korea, in a war that would not have occurred if Truman would have insisted our troops should linger in Korea like they did in Japan and Germany.
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