MBVD: Petraeus Speech/Statement to Congress: Updated

Monday, September 10, 2007

Petraeus Speech/Statement to Congress: Updated

Cross posted from Wake up America

[Update] This one is being put on top-- PDF of Ambassador Crockers statement. PDF of the Petraeus statement. The charts General Petraeus used, again PDF format.

I will look for text versions and add them when I find them. (Thanks to Hot Air for supplying these)[End Update]

Ok, that last thread was getting out of hand with all the new information coming in, so I am adding the updated version of the last post which started with asking if the Democrats would be denouncing Move On org and their calling General Petraeus a traitor and just adding the portions here dealing with the testimony given today.

This WILL be updated all day and I as soon as I get my hands on his whole speech and Crockers, I will be putting that here too.

[Updates below] All day updates on the statement from General Petraeus.

General Petraeus speaks: His quote: “This is my testimony…I wrote this testimony myself.”

Malkin is also live blogging the testimony.

General Petraeus speaks: His quote: “This is my testimony…I wrote this testimony myself.”

[Update] 10:33am- General Petraeus stated that if progress continues along the lines they are seeing, there will be a draw down of troops to pre-surge levels by 2008.

FYI: Search engines still not showing any democrats denouncing Move On.org and their ad.

[Update] 10:42am- Petraeus is explaing his charts and showing how bombings and violence has declined significantly, especially over the last couple months and more so in the last weeks---- (Note from spree-the last weeks were deliberately left out of the GAO, the group that works for Congress and their recent report.)

[Update] 10:44 am- They are having more hecklers removed as they try to scream over General Petraeus as he is speaking because they do not like his report.

[Update] 10:46 am- He is speaking to Iraqi security forces and showing how they are completely engaged in securing Iraq and out of 140 Iraqi security forces, 95 of them are taking the lead in securing their areas with "minimal" Coalition help.

[Update 11:00am- General Petraeus finishes and more hecklers being removed and Skelton is now threatening that any more disturbances will prosecuted under the law....AFTER he let them to stay TO cause a disturbance.

[Update] 11:02 am- Ambassador Crocker is now speaking.

Crocker: "I will not minimize the enormity of the challenges and at the same time I will show that it IS possible for the United States to achieve their goals and the Iraqis are capable of learning to secure their own country."

[Update] 11:18am- Crocker discussed how on provincial levels political progress is being seen in Iraq. Also he discussed how Anbar tribes have been fighting against al-Qaeda. Talking about Iraq making some gains in rebuilding and economical gains.

[Update] 11:35am- Move America Forward is also live blogging the statements by General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker:

Petraeus:
Finally. Gen. David Petraeus is speaking on the troop surge. Here’s a short synopsis:
* Tribal leaders are turning against al-Qaida
* Force levels will begin dropping soon.
* Huge drops in deaths of civilians, allied troops, violence and attacks, though the numbers are still not acceptable
* Coalition and Iraqi troops deal serious blows to al-Qaida
* Troop levels may be reduced by next summer and maintain current security.
* It is possible to meet America’s objectives over time.
“Security situation in Iraq is improving,” Gen. Petreaus said.
Premature drawdown would have devastating effects,” Petreaus said. (Are you listening Armchair Gen. Nancy Pelosi?)

Oh, and one other thing. Gen. Petraeus testified he did not allow the White House nor any Senator or even MoveOn.org to see his report before he handed it out on Monday.
So Sens. Durbin, Boxer and Clinton - you may go change your diapers now.
To our troops and their families: Hooray
Crocker:

As the Pink Scream of the Pepto Bismol babes, Code Pink, was shuttered (thankfully), Ambassador Crocker on Monday said a secure Iraq is attainable.

He is looking at the situation on the ground not from a military standpoint, but as a diplomat. Diplomacy is always tough in a war-torn country - even when that war is fruitful in its creation of peace.

Saddam Hussein left a legacy of fear between foes, friends, and even family, Crocker said.

“A new Iraq had to be built literally from scratch,” Crocker said.

“The past 18 months have further strained Iraqi society,” Crocker said.

Al-Qaida attacks and sectarian violence has gnawed away at Iraq, which is now a traumatized society, Crocker said.

Iraqi politicians need to step up to the plate.

On the good side, many leaders are ready to set aside their sect’s needs first for the sake of the country.

“The seeds of reconciliation are being planted,” Crocker said.

Oil and revenue sharing is important, but what is difficult about these laws is that it takes Iraq one step closer to federalism which not all Iraqis have embraced, Crocker said.

Iraqis are struggling with a horrific past. (Rep. Lantos should know this pain. And he should not look like somebody kicked him in the gut after Gen. Petraeus says U.S. is winning)

“We should not be surprised or dismayed that that Iraqis” are still struggling with these issues,” Crocker said.

Iraq’s five most prominent leaders have agreed on many issues and publicly addressed their desire for a long-term relationship with the United States.

They acknowledged a continued presence of America in their country (kind of like in Japan and Germany and Kosovo, eh, Sen. Kerry?)

[Update]11:45am- As much as I dislike Harry "Baghdad" Reid, I did say I would bring any statements against Move On.org and although Reid calls it a distraction, I have to be fair and say he is the first to "distance" himself with Move On or. for the attack ad against Petraeus. (Hat Tip to Hot Air)

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid expressed frustration Monday with a new print ad attacking Gen. David Petraeus that is being paid for by a liberal advocacy organization on the same day the general is providing testimony before Congress on the situation in Iraq.

When asked early this morning if this was the right message for his party to send, the Nevada Democrat curtly answered “No.”

In a separate conversation, a senior Democratic leadership aide called the ad an “unnecessary distraction

Fair is fair and although he didn't denounce it as strongly as the GOP leadership has, he DID distance himself.

Another Hat Tip to Hot Air, YouTube video of Code Pink being removed after heckling General Petraeus.

Hot Air has something in his updates I did not mention so let me show you that here.

Duncan Hunter:

Duncan Hunter’s ripping on the Petraeus critics and mentions Lantos by name for impugning his testimony as the product of political operatives. He does a good job responding to Lantos’s point that Anbar is only 5% of the population, noting that it used to comprise 50% of the attacks. Now he’s analogizing the left’s opposition to the Iraq war with their opposition to the cold war. Heh. Hunter asks Skelton to stipulate that Petraeus’s and Crocker’s integrity should be stipulated to by the panel — and Skelton complies.

Good for Duncan Hunter!!!!!

[Update] 12:02pm- Ros-Lehtinen calls on the Democrats to distance themselves from the Move On or. ad again!!! Good for her.

[Update] 12:17pm- quote from Roger about Lanto's, via email.

Now Tom Lantos is countering Petraeus expert testimony by qouting JOURNALISTS!! JEEEEZ.

Exactly my first reaction Roger.

[Update] 12:41pm- More protesters arrested for disturbance.

[Update] 12:53pm- Real quick lets remind everyone of General Petraeus' unblemished career and devotion to America, shown in his 35 years of dedicated service:

Here are the credentials of General Petraeus which we showed you yesterday afternoon while showing you how the Democrats, (before Move On anounced their full page ad in the NYT), were already trying to discredit General Petraeus:

General David H. Petraeus assumed command of the Multi-National Force-Iraq on February 10th, 2007, following his assignment as the Commanding General, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth. Prior to assuming command at Ft. Leavenworth, he was the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq, which he led from June 2004 to September 2005, and the NATO Training Mission- Iraq, which he commanded from October 2004 to September 2005. That deployment to Iraq followed his command of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault), during which he led the “Screaming Eagles” in combat throughout the first year of Operation Iraqi Freedom. His command of the 101st followed a year deployed on Operation Joint Forge in Bosnia, where he was the Assistant Chief of Staff for Operations of the NATO Stabilization Force and the Deputy Commander of the US Joint Interagency Counter-Terrorism Task Force-Bosnia. Prior to his tour in Bosnia, he spent two years at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, serving first as the Assistant Division Commander for Operations of the 82nd Airborne Division and then as the Chief of Staff of XVIII Airborne Corps.

General Petraeus was commissioned in the Infantry upon graduation from the United States Military Academy in 1974. He has held leadership positions in airborne, mechanized, and air assault infantry units in Europe and the United States, including command of a battalion in the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) and a brigade in the 82nd Airborne Division. In addition, he has held a number of staff assignments: Aide to the Chief of Staff of the Army; battalion, brigade, and division operations officer; Military Assistant to the Supreme Allied Commander - Europe; Chief of Operations of the United Nations Force in Haiti; and Executive Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

General Petraeus was the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College Class of 1983. He subsequently earned MPA and Ph.D. degrees in international relations from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and later served as an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the US Military Academy. He also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.

Awards and decorations earned by General Petraeus include the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Distinguished Service Medal, two awards of the Defense Superior Service Medal, four awards of the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star Medal for valor, the State Department Superior Honor Award, the NATO Meritorious Service Medal, and the Gold Award of the Iraqi Order of the Date Palm. He is a Master Parachutist and is Air Assault and Ranger qualified. He has also earned the Combat Action Badge and French, British, and German Jump Wings. In 2005 he was recognized by the U.S. News and World Report as one of America’s 25 Best Leaders.

This is the man that Move On.org is accusing of being a traitor and "cooking the books":

MoveOn.org Calls Petraeus a Traitor
Do Democrats in Congress agree?
by Pete Hegseth
09/09/2007 5:28:00 PM

Tomorrow--as General David Petraeus provides his Iraq assessment to Congress--the antiwar group MoveOn.org is running a full-page advertisement in the New York Times under the headline: "General Petraeus or General Betray us? Cooking the books for the White House."

Let's be clear: MoveOn.org is suggesting that General Petraeus has 'betrayed' his country. This is disgusting. To attack as a traitor an American general commanding forces in war because his 'on the ground' experience does not align with MoveOn.org's political objectives is utterly shameful. It shows contempt for America's military leadership, as well as for the troops who have confidence in him, as our fellow soldiers in Iraq certainly do.

General Petraeus has served this country for over 35 years with honor, distinction, and integrity. And this is not just about General Petraeus. After all, if General Petraeus is "cooking the books," then the entire military chain of command in Baghdad, and all the staff, military and civilian, who have been working with General Petraeus are complicit, since Petraeus did not write his report in isolation. They are all, apparently, 'betray[ing] us.'

MoveOn.org has been working closely with the Democratic congressional leadership --as an article in today's Sunday New York Times Magazine makes clear. And consider this comment by a Democratic senator from Friday's Politico: "'No one wants to call [Petraeus] a liar on national TV,' noted one Democratic senator, who spoke on the condition on anonymity. 'The expectation is that the outside groups will do this for
us.'

General Petraeus was confirmed, unanimously 81-0, (that link is to the roll call vote) and given the job of heading up a new counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq back in February and he received his full compliment of troops a approximately two months ago. [End Update]

More updates to follow.... they are still questioning General Petraeus and his education and expertise is making "some" of those questioners look as uninformed as they are. Especially the ones that are quoting "newspapers" to try to counter General Petraeus and his experience and military expertise.

He is making mincemeat out of them and he is doing it in such a respectful manner, which is high lighting THEIR deliberate disrespect.

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PLEASE HELP US HELP THOSE WHO FOUGHT FOR OUR FREEDOM!

My Favorite Speeches and Other Items of Interest

George Bush's March 28, 2007 Discusses Economy, War on Terror During Remarks to the National Cattlemen's Beef Association;http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070328-2.html
Mitch McConnell's March 15, 2007 Funding For Troops, Not Timelines for Retreat; http://mcconnell.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=270747&start=1
Ronald Reagan's June 12, 1987 Tear Down This Wall Speech; http://www.reaganfoundation.org/reagan/speeches/wall.asp
Vice President Cheney's March 12, 2007 Remarks at the AIPAC 2007 Policy Conference; http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/03/20070312.html

Winston Churchill Quotes

A prisoner of war is a man who tries to kill you and fails, and then asks you not to kill him.
Although personally I am quite content with existing explosives, I feel we must not stand in the path of improvement.
Although prepared for martyrdom, I preferred that it be postponed.
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.
Battles are won by slaughter and maneuver. The greater the general, the more he contributes in maneuver, the less he demands in slaughter.
Danger - if you meet it promptly and without flinching - you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
I always seem to get inspiration and renewed vitality by contact with this great novel land of yours which sticks up out of the Atlantic.
I am an optimist. It does not seem too much use being anything else.
I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.
I like a man who grins when he fights.
I was only the servant of my country and had I, at any moment, failed to express her unflinching resolve to fight and conquer, I should at once have been rightly cast aside.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-a tremendous whack.
In war as in life, it is often necessary when some cherished scheme has failed, to take up the best alternative open, and if so, it is folly not to work for it with all your might.
It is no use saying, 'We are doing our best.' You have got to succeed in doing what is necessary.
Moral of the Work. In war: resolution. In defeat: defiance. In victory: magnanimity. In peace: goodwill.
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
Never, never, never give up.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism.
One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!
Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.
Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.
The first quality that is needed is audacity.
The nose of the bulldog has been slanted backwards so that he can breathe without letting go.
The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.
There is no such thing as public opinion. There is only published opinion.
These are not dark days: these are great days - the greatest days our country has ever lived.
They are decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all-powerful to be impotent.
True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting information.
Victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory, there is no survival.
War is a game that is played with a smile. If you can't smile, grin. If you can't grin, keep out of the way till you can.
War is mainly a catalogue of blunders.
We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.
We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.
When the eagles are silent the parrots begin to jabber.
When you are winning a war almost everything that happens can be claimed to be right and wise.
You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Ronald Reagan Quotes

"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today's world do not have.
All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk.
Approximately 80% of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let's not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources
Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Concentrated power has always been the enemy of liberty.
Double, no triple, our troubles and we'd still be better off than any other people on earth. It is time that we recognized that ours was, in truth, a noble cause.
Facts are stupid things.
Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Freedom prospers when religion is vibrant and the rule of law under God is acknowledged.
Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.
Governments tend not to solve problems, only to rearrange them.
History teaches that war begins when governments believe the price of aggression is cheap.
How can a president not be an actor?
How do you tell a communist? Well, it's someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It's someone who understands Marx and Lenin.
I have wondered at times what the Ten Commandments would have looked like if Moses had run them through the US Congress.
I will stand on, and continue to use, the figures I have used, because I believe they are correct. Now, I'm not going to deny that you don't now and then slip up on something; no one bats a thousand.
In Israel, free men and women are every day demonstrating the power of courage and faith. Back in 1948 when Israel was founded, pundits claimed the new country could never survive. Today, no one questions that. Israel is a land of stability and democracy in a region of tryanny and unrest.
Let us ask ourselves; "What kind of people do we think we are?".
Man is not free unless government is limited.
My philosophy of life is that if we make up our mind what we are going to make of our lives, then work hard toward that goal, we never lose - somehow we win out.
No mother would ever willingly sacrifice her sons for territorial gain, for economic advantage, for ideology.
Of the four wars in my lifetime, none came about because the U.S. was too strong.
Our forbearance should never be misunderstood. Our reluctance for conflict should not be misjudged as a failure of will. When action is required to preserve our national security, we will act.
Protecting the rights of even the least individual among us is basically the only excuse the government has for even existing.
Some people wonder all their lives if they've made a difference. The Marines don't have that problem.
The ultimate determinant in the struggle now going on for the world will not be bombs and rockets but a test of wills and ideas - a trial of spiritual resolve: the values we hold, the beliefs we cherish and the ideals to which we are dedicated.
The United Sates has much to offer the third world war.
There are no easy answers' but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right.
To paraphrase Winston Churchill, I did not take the oath I have just taken with the intention of presiding over the dissolution of the world's strongest economy.
Today we did what we had to do. They counted on America to be passive. They counted wrong.
We are never defeated unless we give up on God.
We have the duty to protect the life of an unborn child.
We must reject the idea that every time a law's broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.
We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we will always be free.
Within the covers of the Bible are the answers for all the problems men face.
You know, if I listened to Michael Dukakis long enough, I would be convinced we're in an economic downturn and people are homeless and going without food and medical attention and that we've got to do something about the unemployed.