Re: Petraeus: Troop Surge Working To Lessen Death Toll in a Few Areas


"JC" <dontbother@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"Florida" <demeter547opine@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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On Aug 31, 2:56 pm, Joe Avelon <javalo...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
America's troop surge in Iraq has sharply reduced sectarian
killings and roadside bombings and lowered al-Qaida's
influence, the top U.S. general in the country said in an
interview published Friday.

"We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going
to do everything we can to build on that progress and we
believe al-Qaida is off balance at the very least," The
Australian newspaper quoted Gen. David Petraeus as saying.

Petraeus said there had been a 75 percent drop in ethnic and
religious killings since last year, a doubling in the number
of seizures of insurgent weapons caches between January and
August, a drop in the number of coalition deaths from roadside
bombs, and an increase in the killing and capture of al-Qaida
fighters, the newspaper said.

If we're very lucky or even a little smart, we aren't going to
depend on an Australian newspaper and one general to determine U.S.
foreign policy and the disposition of the remaining fraction of the
U.S. treasury. A very smart man in another forum, compared Iraq and
Vietnam this way:

"And another similarity: the misconception of "listening to the
generals".
In the military structure, only good news goes upward (in a business
structure, only bad news goes upward). The military term for this is
"*** floats".
The generals in Vietnam got nothing but positive reports,
except from the press.

That's a damn lie. I was one of those that did a lot of the reporting.
ROBERT B MCNAMARA cooked the reports. READ HIS FUCKING BOOK!!!
--
That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

JC

PS: And don't forget his motto:

"I learned early on . never answer the question that is asked of you. Answer
the question that you wish had been asked of you. And quite frankly, I
follow that rule. It's a very good rule."


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