From the article
Senior congressional aides said yesterday that the White House has proposed limiting the much-anticipated appearance on Capitol Hill next month of Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker to a private congressional briefing, suggesting instead that the Bush administration's progress report on the Iraq war should be delivered to Congress by the secretaries of state and defense.
And guess how those reports would be created?
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.) told the White House that Bush's presentation plan was unacceptable. An aide to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) said that "we are in talks with the administration and . . . Senator Levin wants an open hearing" with Petraeus.
Those positions only hardened yesterday with reports that the document would not be written by the Army general but instead would come from the White House, with input from Petraeus, Crocker and other administration officials.
So, the General wouldn't even write the progress report, the admininstration would. It's deja vu all over again. If the administration is allowed to get away with this, the report will have cherry picked positive progress reports based on minor targeted accomplishments of success.
The article then goes on to say:
Lawmakers from both parties are growing worried that the report -- far from clarifying the United States' future in Iraq -- will only harden the political battle lines around the war.
With headlines like this it's no wonder they are trying to control the message.
Think Progress has an interview with Juan Cole up which reveals that the while the number bombings may have been reduced, the number of people killed has actually increased:
You know, the number of Iraqis killed went up 25 percent in July over June. The number of troops killed in July was twice what it ordinarily has been in July. It depends on how you look at these numbers. There have been fewer big bombings; although, there still are big bombings, but there have been more people killed by sniper fire.
So the violence has not subsided, and the guerrilla resistance in the Sunni Arab regions is still very powerful. And there’s no sign of a political solution to this thing, which is the only real solution to this kind of guerrilla war. So I’m afraid I don’t think, if the report is honest, we’re going to see a lot of progress here.
Does the White House truly think they can pull the bait and switch on us again? I swear, they aren't even trying to hide it any more. I sincerely hope the rest of media picks up on this. Petreaus needs to appear in front of Congress personally to give his report in public. No other option should be acceptable.
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