Well said, Amos.

After two straight days of being glued to the tube watching hearings, I have only this to say:

(1) Petraeus and Crocker deserve the Congressional Medal of Patience for answering the same questions something like 60 times each. Why do they call them "hearings" when nobody listens to anything that is said. Opinion aside, whether you agree with the answer or not, can you think of nothing more constructive than to ask the same question that 59 other Teflon-brained Honorable Members have already asked?

(2) Bulletin: It's not Oct 03 anymore. We can't re-decide whether to go into Iraq. We're there. I'm upset that we were lied to back then. I'm upset that false promises were made. I'm upset that we were deceived. But what to do about the arrogant asses in Washington is one question; what to do about the Iraq situation is a separate question.

(3) If we withdraw too soon, is there not a real danger that between the terrorists and the Iranians, the situation will simply deteriorate to the point where we have to go back in because the oil situation will be worse then than it is now? Yes, the "surge" was a sort of Alice-in-Dunderland deal where you send more troops so you will need fewer troops. Tweedle-Dum. But now the wet hankies want to use fewer troops so that in a while we will need to use more troops. Tweedle-Dee. Yes, 4000 deaths are tragic. I feel for the people who have lost family members & friends. Been there, done that, still waiting for the tee-shirt. But as bad as 4000 deaths are, 8000 would be worse. What am I missing? [Brilliant comment this morning: we should withdraw from Iraq so we can fight in Afghanistan. How would that change the argument? Amos would just keep punching the clicker on his lap counter.]

(4) It scares the crap out of me our country is run and our foreign policy decided by people with no sense of history. That's a bipartisan slam, BTW. It applies to a Republican prexy who thinks the Iraqis will welcome foreign infidels as liberators, and a Demo.
Senatoress from Califoggia (I live there! I can vote against her!) who equally can't understand why Americans have to wear body armor in Baghdad.

CC
(stands for Comewhat Ctunned)