General David Petraeus Report

General David Petraeus, the Commanding General of Multi-National Forces, Iraq and the head honcho in the war against terrorism, appeared before a joint session of the House Armed Services Committee and House Foreign Relations Committee today to give his much anticipated assessment.

We'll try to remain neutral. Just the facts, ma'am, and all that, right?

General Petraeus's overall assessment was that the surge of US troops met its military objectives and that we may be able to scale back to pre-surge levels by July 2008 without jeopardizing our gains. In other words, a withdrawal of about 30,000 service members by mid-summer.

"The level of security incidents has declined in eight of the past 12 weeks with the level of incidents in the past two weeks the lowest since June of 2006," he said.

Iranian, Syrian, and Iraqi terrorists, Al-Qaeda, and sectarian violence remain the largest threats to stability, and although there is no guarantee of success, abandoning the country now would result in certain failure and embolden Al-Qaeda and its allies.

Throughout the proceedings, anti-war protesters, including Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq, heckled General Petraeus.

"Tell the truth, General!" rang the chorus. "Generals lie, children die!"

Finally, the Chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Republican Ike Skelton, gave them the boot. "No more disturbances will be tolerated," he said. "Out they go."

However, when Petraeus finished his testimony, several more protesters began chanting, "Pull out!" They also got the boot. One woman wearing a pink cardboard crown and screaming "No, no, no!" had to be forced out of the room by security guards.

General Petraeus came under attack ...

Wait a minute. Sorry.

If we were to give our lives while serving our country, do you really think we would want our families to discredit that sacrifice by protesting the very reason for which we died? The correct answer is no. We would not. We would be ashamed. Luckily, we know our families have the good sense to realize that we died fighting for our country. This is an all-volunteer Army. There is no draft. No one has forced us to pick-up arms and defend our country. We do it because we are patriots. Be proud of us. Don't turn around and say our cause wasn't just or that we died without purpose. Don't embarrass us, and don't embarrass our memory.

We know we said we'd try to remain neutral. We failed.

Anyway, General Petraeus came under attack in an advertisement in today's New York Times. Right-wing nut jobs from MoveOn.org made numerous ridiculous and unprovable accusations, including one that he was "cooking the books for the White House." The title of the ad? "General Petraeus or General Betray-us?"

Cute.

The 2000 Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, Senator Joe Lieberman, responded, "We must reject the slander of this brave soldier and patriot," and White House press secretary Tony Snow wrote it off as "a boorish, childish, unworthy attack."

Today's hearing on our progress in the War on Terror was only the first, and it begins a week-long focus on the future of the Iraqi conflict.

Remember that tomorrow is Patriot Day and the anniversary of September 11, 2007. Please do not forget the men and women who lost their lives on that day and the men and women who continue to sacrifice their own well-being to protect your freedoms and defend this great country.