On the heels of the Petraeus report

I listened last week to much of the dialogue with General Petraeus. I continue to believe that he's credible as much because of what he doesn't say as what he does. I thought the decision by MoveOn to caricature him as "General BetrayUs" in the New York Times was dead wrong. He's no Gonzalez, Rove, Cheney or Bush. But when all was said and done, I was willing to concede that some of his points were valide but maybe not relevant. If I'm not mistaken, the announcement that we'll be back down to presurge troop levels by late next spring is just a different way of saying that we've already committed to bringing those troops back regardless of conditions on the ground in Iraq-their tours wind down and we don't have substantial forces free to rotate in even if we wanted them. I'm still not hearing that the situation in the north- Turkish troops poised to go after Kurdish fighters- is improved. I'm not hearing that we are sure that the formal Iraqi forces owe their allegiance to the central government rather than to other tribal or religious entities. I read and hear interviews in Baghdad and other places stating that the streets aren't safe, the electricity isn't on, and there's no potable water. Interviews with Iraqis. Is oil production up and stable? Is there a plan for dealing with the hundreds of thousands of refugees and expatriates? If our measure of success is to 'stabilize the daily life of Iraqis for the better' I don't think General Petraeus would have been willing to assert that there was more than a tablespoonful of pluses to put in the mix. I think we are less and less clear about what our measure of success is.
The President doesn't have it. I don't think Democrats have figured out how to articulate it. And the passage of time brings us to solution by force of circumstance. Not good. The gigantic bunker of an embassy we are busy building has
emblematic characteristics parallel to the conflict. Gigantic, heavily armored, expensive and perhaps destructive to the very goals we say we desire.