The Petraeus Trap

by John Hawkins | August 1, 2007 2:20 am

The Democrats have been working to undercut the war in Iraq for months with one goal: getting enough blue state Republicans to go along with them in September of this year to put a timeline on the war.

The idea was supposed to be that David Petraeus would come in, give a talk to Congress, and then, no matter what he said, the Democrats would declare defeat and drag enough Republicans concerned about low poll numbers along with them to make it stick.

However, as it turned out, there was a flaw in their strategy.

The Democrats considered Petraeus’ report to Congress to be important only because that was when they thought it was a convenient time to negotiate a surrender with the blue state GOPers. To them, having Petraeus speak was incidental. In fact, if you’ll remember, back in April the Democrats initially declined to even be briefed[1] by Petraeus until the Republicans humiliated them over the issue. That’s because the Democrats had already decided, even back then, that the war had to be lost for political reasons, and so the situation on the ground, strategy, etc., was irrelevant to them — and it hasn’t gotten any more important in their eyes.

However, because they put so much emphasis on Petraeus talking to Congress in September, they actually managed to make it into an important event in the mind of the American people. The public will be paying a lot of attention to what Petraeus says and if, as expected, he says that we’re making a lot of military progress in Iraq and can win the war, the Democrats are going to be in an enormous pickle.

Conservatives have been pointing out for months that the Democrats intend to stab the country in the back and deliberately lose the war for political reasons, no matter what the situation is on the ground. So, if the general in charge comes back and says things are improving and we can win, yet the Democrats still want to surrender to Al-Qaeda, it proves that what has been said about them is accurate: They want to lose a winnable war for the sake of politics.

That’s why James Clyburn[2] is suggesting that Petraeus’ report may be trouble for the Democrats,

“House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said Monday that a strongly positive report on progress on Iraq by Army Gen. David Petraeus likely would split Democrats in the House and impede his party’s efforts to press for a timetable to end the war.”

How do you set up a timetable to surrender in a war that your head general on the ground says you’re winning without looking as if your actions are motivated purely by political concerns?

You don’t — and that’s the “Petraeus Trap” that Democrats have set up for themselves.

Also see, David Petraeus Must Be Destroyed[3]

Endnotes:
  1. briefed: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=3075560
  2. James Clyburn: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/30/AR2007073001380.html
  3. David Petraeus Must Be Destroyed: https://rightwingnews1.wpenginepowered.com/mt331/2007/07/david_petraeus_must_be_destroy.php?comments=show

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