Word: petraeus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Everyone in Washington is anxiously awaiting the release of General David Petraeus' report (though the law requiring the report mandates that it come from President Bush, even Bush calls it "Petraeus' report") as well as the general's testimony before Congress, set for Sept. 11. Squabbling over Iraq has been largely brought to a standstill in the capital while lawmakers wait to hear what Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, has to say about progress--or the lack thereof--in the country. But over the past week, a handful of military officers have made statements telegraphing the conclusions Petraeus...
...Petraeus is making clear that too much American blood has been spilled in Iraq for the U.S. to continue without wholesale progress being made by "the Iraqi security forces, the Iraqi people, the Iraqi political leaders." His comments, echoed by President Bush during the North American summit in Quebec, seem to be a predicate for declaring that if Iraq is lost, it will be the Iraqis' fault. Top U.S. generals are predicting that the 30,000-strong troop surge will begin receding in early 2008, bringing the total U.S. military presence down to 130,000 by next August. Military officials...
...speech marks the start of a weeks-long campaign in the run-up to the politically charged September report card to be delivered to Congress by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Bush will give a second speech next week at the American Legion in Reno, Nevada, and another a week later on a trip to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit taking place this year in Sydney, Australia. The speeches will coincide with the launch of a $15 million ad campaign by a group called Freedom's Watch - which counts former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer...
...hold the same currency with a war-tired public. So, given how low support for the war is, why not add the specter of Vietnam to the costs of defeat? And why not suggest that victory in Iraq could help expunge the indignity of America's loss in Vietnam? Petraeus and Crocker will say what they will regardless of Bush's assertions, so raising the rhetorical stakes in the hopes of bolstering political support ahead of their report is the only card Bush has left to play...
...Prime Minister is expected to make a statement about the timing and management of a further drawdown in October, when parliament returns after the long summer break and after delivery of a situation report by U.S. General David Petraeus, expected in September. Speculation is rife that Britain is heading as fast as possible for the exit. "The British have given up and they know they will be leaving Iraq soon," the radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr told the British daily The Independent, on Aug. 20. His gleeful tone contrasted with the increasingly irritable mood music in Washington...