In Wednesday’s White House press briefing, Tony Snow emphasized the same point he and his colleagues have been pressing for weeks: when it comes to the future of Iraq policy, everyone should just shut up until September.
“It’s important for members of Congress to get a fuller sense of how the surge is working, or also where they think it’s not working,” Snow said. “They’re going to get a report — they want a report on September 15th from Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus; they’ll get that. And at that point, people will be able to make further assessments.”
On its face, it was a dubious claim. For one thing, no one seriously believes the next 45 days are going to make that big a difference. For another, in September, Petraeus, who appears to be increasingly politicized of late, would bolster the White House line anyway.
Regardless, 24 hours after Snow once again asked for patience, the administration changed its tune — September isn’t good enough anymore.
The top commanders in Iraq and the American ambassador to Baghdad appealed for more time beyond their mid-September assessment to more fully judge if the new strategy was making gains.
Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the No. 2 commander in Iraq, told Pentagon reporters that while he would provide the mid-September assessment of the new military strategy that Congress has required, it would take “at least until November” to judge with confidence whether the strategy was working.
But their appeals, in three videoconferences on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon, were met by stern rebukes from lawmakers of both parties.
All the talk about September was just to buy a little time. The White House couldn’t give Republican suckers lawmakers any additional reasons to vote their consciences, so they implored them to keep filibustering until Petraeus could report back. But it was just the latest in a tragically long line of shams.
And keep in mind, while administration officials are talking about putting off progress “at least until November,” they’re actually eyeing January.
The WSJ has some info the other dailies missed:
Despite growing calls from lawmakers for drastic change in Iraq, senior U.S. military officials on the ground say they believe the current strategy should be maintained into next year — and already have mapped out additional phases for doing so through January.
So, for those keeping score at home, we’d start to see the positive effects of the so-called surge by the late-spring, then the early fall, then sometime in 2008.
All the while, the vast majority of Republican lawmakers are wringing their hands about how they really would like to kinda sorta urge the president to consider an alternative policy, perhaps with a polite note.
“We’re in our fifth year [in Iraq] and … I think we’re going backward,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).
Hagel’s right, except it’s fair to say we know we’re going backward.