Petraeus' Report to be Written by White House?

Posted by The Crux | Due in September, General David Petraeus's progress-report on the Iraq troop surge -- the one on which Congress plans to base decisions -- will not be written by Petraeus after all. The LA Times reported:

"Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

"And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data."

In other words, Congress is waiting for President Bush to repeat his already-well-known position: let's pour more lives, money and diplomatic capital into Iraq. 

Perhaps the President knows that his credibility is shot. Why else would he feel compelled to hype the forthcoming report as someone else's?

White House Spokesperson Dana Perino said that the report was always supposed to be written by the White House and that President Bush had never tried to give the impression that Petraeus would write it,

Video clips of the President suggest otherwise (MSNBC).

Once and for all, I wish the White House would spare its spokespeople the embarrassment that making disprovable statements tends to cause.

Comments

[spyscribbler]

I'm sorry, but having Bush in office is like having a dictator. As I call him, he's our Mad King George.