Update: 10:40 am PST

Crucial Iraq war hearing opens in US

House Foreign Affairs committee chairman Tom Lantos was to cast doubt on Bush administration claims that the surge of up to 28 500 extra troops into Iraq, announced in January, was a success.

"With all due respect to you, I must say "I don't buy it," Lantos was to tell Petraeus, according to an advance copy of his remarks.

"The current escalation in our military presence in Iraq may have produced some tactical successes. But strategically, the escalation has failed.

"It was intended to buy time for Prime Minister Maliki and the other Iraqi political leaders to find ways to move toward the one thing that may end this terrible civil conflict, and that, of course, is a political settlement.

"As best we can see, that time has been utterly squandered."

I'm watching MSNBC right now which is covering "The Iraq War Report".

Rep. Tom Lantos (D - CA) is speaking and he's speaking the truth. He's laying out the truth for all to hear as Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker stare blank eyed like two kids caught stealing candy bars at the local 7 Eleven. If I can get a transcript or report on it later I will post it.

First quote is in:

Lantos: "military progress without political progress is meaningless....We need to get out of Iraq, for that country's sake and for our own."

Rep. Lantos basically layed the case out for getting out of Iraq immediately, that the surge is a failure, there's nothing to "win" in Iraq, and what we're doing is in fact propping up a government that is aligning itself with Iran not the U.S. He spoke about Afghanistan and how all we did there was pave the way for the Taliban to come back to power. He spoke of all the lives being lost and the money being spent that our grandchildren will have to pay back.

Ofcourse now Duncan Hunter (R - CA) is giving Petraeus a little cover appealing to "military duty" and bashing Moveon.org.

The same old argument is emerging, that we shoud not speak out against the occupation of Iraq because it sullies our soldiers. That we need to stay in Iraq in order to honor our military. That seems to be the sole reason for staying in Iraq these days; to give our soldiers a chance to die with honor.

Is that really reason enough?

Things would be a lot easier if the Bush Administration would just tell the truth to the American People rather try to punt Iraq down the road. Just tell us you plan to be in Iraq and help build that nation for the next 20 years. Don't tell us to wait yet another 6 months. Don't tell us not to question or criticize. Don't tell us to just shut up and wait now until March 2008. Just tell us the truth.

America wants Iraq to be a military staging ground for future miltiary operations and policing of the Middle East. We've built permanent military installations and a vatican sized embassy. We're now building a base on the Iraq-Iran border.

We're not leaving Iraq; we're not leaving the region. We plan to use our military might to tame the region and bring it into the fold of international capitalism paving the way for coca-cola and McDonald's franchises. We can't leave Iraq now because Malaki has threatened to just ask Iran for help. We're stuck. We can't leave. We'll never leave.

Just tell the truth. We armed the insurgency. We funded the insurgency. We fuel the insurgency.

One thing is certain; Republicans are liars.

Rep Ros-Lehtinen (R - FLA) just went on a tyraid against "the left" and moveon.org. Apparently she's prepared to accept the surge numbers on face value even though Iraqis getting shot in the face are not counted in the statistics as this is not "sectarian" violence, only Iraqis getting shot in the back of the head are counted. The bombing in Northern Iraq that killed over 500 people is not being counted.

Anbar is being propped up as an example of success in Iraq even though that success had little to do with the surge and more to do with "Al Qaeda in Iraq" telling Sunni Chieftans they could not smoke cigarettes (according to Fred Thompson) pissing them off so much that they joined the U.S. Reality is success in Anbar started 4 months before the surge even took place. Success in Anbar has nothing to with the surge.

Uh-oh...Petraeus's microphone isn't working....

5 minute break to fix the mic.

In the meantime it's turning into a bash Moveon.org and the "deeply partisan left".

This is all about the ad Moveon.org took out in the NY Times. Everyone is citing it and holding up papers that say "General Petraus or General Betray Us?". This ofcourse is done after lengthy talk about our honorable military.

But no one is actually reading what the ad says or the points it is making.

Read the ad here and check the facts yourself. The media won't do it. But they will gladly repeat "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" and moveon.org over and over again.

Petraus is ending his talk with the typical Appeal to Pity bloodbath argument. Someone should ask him what he thinks of bombing Iran. If he think we should, the follow up question should be "why is a bloodbath in Iran acceptable but in Iraq not acceptable?".

Lastly ofcourse Petraus is thanking Congress for all the money the military is getting and how telling everyone how great and honorable the military is along with the troops dying in Iraq.

This is a cheesy tactic meant to silence critics. The goal is to create the aura that if you criticize the mission in Iraq that somehow you are criticizing the troops as well. And Americans keep falling for it as they slap another yellow magnet on their car.