(HOST) Commentator Bill Seamans says it’s so hard to tell if the Iraq Surge is working – or not – that he’s beginning to think that much of the confusion is intentional.
(SEAMANS) A month ago – on May 13th to be exact – the Democratic Congressional leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, sent a letter to President Bush which said in part that our new surge of troops in Iraq has had little impact in curbing the violence against Iraqis and the attacks on U.S. forces have increased. Before that, Dick Cheney said, “The reality on the ground is that we’ve made major progress.” Then this month, force commander Gen. Raymond Odierno said that sixty percent, or two-thirds of Baghdad was not under control.
Later, President Bush suggested that a report about Iraq to be issued in September by our generals could indicate just how many of our troops might be coming home. But our top commander, Gen. David Petraeus, last week gave us what amounted to a negative preview of the September Report. Petraeus said conditions in Iraq will not improve enough by September to justify the withdrawal of our troops. Asked whether he thought Bush’s 30,000 troop surge had helped, Petraeus said – and I quote – “I do not…I think that we have a lot of heavy lifting to do” – and that could last for years.
While we the people wonder who and what to believe, the Democrats charged that Bush was playing a bait and switch game with the true facts in Iraq – that the bait was his suggestion that the September Report might call for a withdrawal and then after that gave Bush some favorable political publicity we got the switch when Gen. Petraeus said it would not happen. That is, we seem to have been offered hope – but then again we were not.
Now the buzz is that President Bush’s public persuasion machine is making a maximum effort to play down the importance of the September Report – that instead of Bush’s vague withdrawal suggestion, we the people are being prepared to extend and escalate the war in order to win it. You might have noticed a coordinated effort by administration officials suddenly appearing on all the talk shows expressing doubts about Iraq that they were never allowed to offer before. If you feel that President Bush is trying to manipulate your thoughts concerning what we should do about Iraq – you’ve joined the crowd…
We have been fed fake news, disinformation and outright lies. – We should hail those courageous leakers who have penetrated the pall of White House secrecy and for seeking the truth either have been fired or had their reputations destroyed.
Meanwhile we often have asked how President Bush defines victory in Iraq – a retired general suggested that, and I quote: “victory is anything he can get away with without taking the blame for defeat.” I think we can expect the September Report to say that we cannot stand down because the Iraqis are not standing up.
Bill Seamans is a former correspondent and bureau chief for ABC News in the Middle East.