Hardball Does The Post-Petraeus Wrap-Up

Chris Matthews, who's been pretty anti-war for quite a while now, had a doozy of a show tonight, dominated by Democratic veterans (Joe Sestak, Tim Walz, Markos Moulistas, Jon Soltz) who made the case that today's Petraeus testimony failed to make the case that the surge was producing the results it sought when it was put into place - to allow for a political solution. Furthermore, Ryan Crocker said not to expect a political solution in the near future. So we're just putting troops in danger for the vanity of a stubborn man in the White House who doesn't want to lose a war. Furthermore, I'm heartened to see the point made over and over that it is incompatible to say "the surge is working" and "we have to draw down troops next year." If you're winning but haven't yet won, you press the advantage instead of backing up. There are two tracks by which the Iraq war is being fought; the political/military track in Baghdad, and the purely political track at home. Saying "the surge is working AND we can bring some people home within a number of months" is an effort to satisfy swing district Republicans.

But honestly, Matthews is nuts. He saved his most praise for Kos making the obvious point that the military has been continuously claiming that the surge would have to end next year because the military is broken, and so Petraeus appropriating it as a strategy is just ludicrous and shows how politicized the debate has become. Kos deserves praise for saying that, but Matthews' reason for the praise was 1) it's something he said 2 minutes earlier but not as well, and 2) he heard Colin Powell say that one time. Why that should be the reasons for praise is kind of beyond me.

We're in a stalemate in Iraq, with no gains being made at the street level. And whatever we do has no impact on the final outcome, which is likely to be an out-of-control civil war. It's always been the case that war supporters claim the problems are in the past, and NOW we have the right strategy. We've heard that for simply too long to credibly believe it anymore.