Countdown Sums up Beginning of Iraq Testimony
Keith Olbermann, host of the newscast Countdown, summarizes yesterday’s events. He interviews General William Odom, who delivered an excellent assessment of Iraq. I posted it here.
I have talked about this before. I don’t that that there will be any useful information handed out at these hearings. General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker are intelligent people and they work for the Bush administration. As such, they are going to put forth the administration’s views on Iraq and Iran.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice did us all a favor almost a year ago. She was on the Charlie Rose show and there was a moment of candor and clarity. It was brief, and if you weren’t paying attention you would have missed it. As a matter of fact, I think that Charlie Rose missed it. Rice said, “We are not looking to leave Iraq. That is not why this president went into Iraq…. We are not going to leave Iraq that is not capable of defending itself.” Boom. We are done.
There is no need for any more Petraeus’ testimonies because now we know what the end point is. Iraq must be able to defend itself. That isn’t going to happen in a year. Therefore, we will be in Iraq with a significant number of troops until the next president gets in office. Period. End of story.