His well-rehearsed comments, which were prepared by the White House, repeated the same old spin and the same old tricks that we've come to recognize in Brand Bush:
We're making progress in Iraq.
Al-Qaeda in Iraq is weakening.
Some of our troops might be able to come home soon.
We just need to give it more time -- and more money.
Many more American troops, and more innocent Iraq men, women, and babies, must die for Bush's oily imperial agenda. (Of course, he didn't come out and say that last part.)
>> Watch Petraeus's opening statement.
The Institute for Policy Studies has prepared a response, which is being distributed by the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition.
An excerpt:
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The so-called Petraeus Report - actually written within the White House - is supposed to evaluate "progress" in the U.S. war and surging occupation of Iraq based on a set of congressionally-determined benchmarks. Those evaluations will ostensibly provide an overview of how far along U.S.-occupied Iraq is in achieving "stability," "democracy," "equity between groups," and more.-----
But however the White House drafters and General Petraeus and the spindoctors assess the benchmarks, what the report will almost certainly NOT do is provide a true glimpse of what the shattered lives of the 25 million Iraqis look like today.
It will almost certainly NOT mention the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians dead because of the U.S. war and occupation: the British medical journal Lancet reported 650,000 dead as of two years ago and casualties have increased since.
It will probably NOT say much about the two million Iraqis who have fled the war to seek hard-to-find refuge in neighboring countries, nor the additional two million Iraqis forced by war-fueled violence to flee their homes and who remain displaced and homeless inside Iraq.
It will very likely NOT mention that most Iraqis have electricity for only about five hours a day, that clean water remains scarce for most and unobtainable for many, and that Iraq's oil production remains a fraction of what it was before war.
It is NOT likely to highlight the fact that the Pentagon has already spent $456 billion or so of our tax dollars, occupation, war and violence have so devestated the Iraqi economy that unemployment has reached up to 40% and higher, and underemployment an additional 10% or more.
If the report has anything close to a true assessment, it would acknowledge that the lives of people in 2007 Iraq are worse than ever.
It will NOT admit to another set of truths as well. The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal, and in violation of the United Nations Charter. It was based on lies, and those lies have NOT become truths just because the U.S. occupation has now continued for 4 and 1/2 years.
• The war was NOT launched because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction; it didn't;
• The U.S. did NOT invade Iraq because Saddam Hussein was tied to al-Qaeda; he wasn't;
• The U.S. did NOT invade to bring democracy to the people of Iraq; it hasn't.
The failure of the Iraq War has also meant a huge cost to our democracy at home. We have paid an enormous price: in the deaths and shattered minds and bodies of our young soldiers; in the threats to an economy ravaged by billion-dollar bills to pay for an illegal war; in the destruction of so much of our infrastructure, security and social fabric because of human and financial resources diverted to Iraq; and in the shredding of our Constitution and civil rights as fear becomes a weapon in the hands of the Bush administration aimed at Congress, the courts and the people of this country.
>> Download the full report (PDF).
I also recommend reading this excellent analysis of the situation by Arianna Huffington: Denying the Truth: Petraeus, Iraq, and Our Pontius Pilate Press
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