Bobert:

Petraeus and company, in liaison with the US Ambassador to Iraq, have actually been working on a definition of their mission and a path toward execution of it which should carry on into 2009, at least, involving estabslishing regions of safety and security and then joining the regions into a net of safe, secure areas. Sounds great on paper, but I can;t really say I see how they think it is going to work. So it is not the case they have NO mission.

The real question is whether they should have such a mission, at all, and if so why, based on facts rather than fear-mongering. Can't say I am persuaded.

A