Posted on 08/09/2007 8:30:14 AM PDT by bobsunshine
General David Petraeus appeared on Alan Colmes' radio program yesterday. That's a smart move by the general, and Colmes is a fine host, though his site doesn't provide transcripts. The folks who slandered the general for appearing on my show will now be writing what?
UPDATE: Here's a transcript provided by a reader. I can't vouch for its complete accuracy, but I trust the sender:
"ALAN COLMES, FOX NEWS HOST: We welcome the commander of the Multi-National Force, General David Petraeus. General, thank you so much for being with us tonight.
GENERAL DAVID PETRAEUS, COMMANDER, MULTI-NATIONAL FORCE, IRAQ: Good.............
COLMES: General, is the surge working?
PETRAEUS: Well, it is. We are making progress. We have achieved tactical momentum in many areas, especially against al Qaeda in Iraq, and to a lesser degree against the militia (ph) extremists. We're also heartened by the number of Iraqi tribes and local citizens who have rejected al Qaeda. We cannot attribute that to the surge but the surge certainly enabled that to move much more rapidly, we believe, than it otherwise would have."
(Excerpt) Read more at hughhewitt.townhall.com ...
Bookmark for later read.
Excellent posting!
The lefty blogs are calling the General “traitor” and every other name in the book for “losing/selling” the missing weapons.
Some are demanding Petraeus be ‘frog marched” before a congressional hearing.
Dhimmicrats will stop at nothing to smear and derail the General.
This was my favorite exchange:
COLMES: “General Petraeus, “The Washington Post” reported on Monday of this week that the Pentagon lost track of about 190,000 AK-47s, assault rifles and pistols given to the Iraqi security forces in 2004 and 2005. The U.S. Accountability Office says U.S. military officials don’t know what happened to 30 percent of the weapons and I quote from the piece that says, “The GAO says weapons distribution was haphazard and rushed and failed to follow established procedures, particularly from 2004 to 2005 when security training was led by General David H. Petraeus.” What happened?”
GENERAL PETRAEUS: “Well, what happened was we were in a period where, as you’ll recall, the Iraqi units of April 2004 had really crumbled when they were ordered into operations during the first Fallujah uprising and when we came in a started standing up the train and equip mission that came to be known as the Multinational Security Transition Command in Iraq in the summer of 2004, there was not much in the way of structure.
We did start to receive equipment, both from - ordered by the CPA initially and also by the Iraqi government and it was a tough situation.
August was the time when Muqtada al Sadr took over the mosque in Najaf and again forces had to go into action. By that time we then had some Iraqi forces that were ready to fight but they didn’t have equipment and that was the beginning of a number of decisions to help provide equipment top Iraqi forces, sometimes literally under fire.
In one case actually flying into Najaf, into a helipad at night, a hot LZ, literally, in Chinook helicopters and actually kicking two battalions worth of equipment off the ramp and getting out of there while we still could.
That type of decision was something that we made at the time because those forces needed those weapons and that equipment. We weren’t going to stay there in the dark and make guys do a serial number inventory and sign them up and that is what happened. We believe those weapons all certainly were given to Iraqi units. Those units did have advisors, but they did not have the property book officer, they did not have the property book records that we would associate with normal procedures and yet they were units that needed to go into the fight, the Iraqi government was under enormous pressure. They made their request known to us and frankly it seemed to us that we needed to get the weapons into their hands and so that is what we did. And that’s what resulted was an inability to track by serial number some percentage of those weapons that were issued during that time.”
Basically, what he was saying to Colmes was (my interpretation):
“We are in a shooting war, you dumb ass. We had three choices, give them nothing and let them all die, give them guns and make them fill out the paperwork under fire, they all get killed as well as a bunch of us, or get the equipment in their hands, let them fight and figure it out later. You idiot.”
Much as I dislike Colmes most of the time, in fairness he did a splendid job on this interview. His questions were good and he gave the General plenty of time to fully answer.
Petraeus is a heavy hitter, IMHO. No lightweight. Sharp. I think he did an excellent job.
I like your interpretation.
“Much as I dislike Colmes most of the time, in fairness he did a splendid job on this interview. His questions were good and he gave the General plenty of time to fully answer.”
Democrats are not going to interfere with the military mission anymore. They are going after the political failures on the part of the Iraqi government.
Parts of the Iraqi government are leaving? My bet is Democrats are urging this to say that the surge is a failure.
bump
Petraeus is an incredibly intelligent individual. Like many on this forum I am intelligent and well read.. so its not often you see guys who you think wow this guy is smarter then I am.. At the top of my game I’m not sure I could match him.
Compare that to the gaggle of leaders America has been putting forward in recent history where you are nearly smacking your own forehead when they start talking.
I can’t stand the way Alan cuts off every guest on his tv or radio show that is not far to the left. Like all dims, when you begin introducing counter logic to their base arguments and it makes sense, they then cut you off with fragmented babble about four other semi-related topics. Alan now has got so use to this he just skips the counter-logic part. I listen to his radio show at night sometimes to hear what the opposition is like. The call-ins are lunatics, conspiracy theorists, over-inflated emotional wrecks and self-absorbed *ricks. I guess the sad part is this is half of America these days. When a guest comes on with counter-logic that makes any sort of sense they are immediately cut off by Alan with babblings.
bump for later
All this second-guessing of the people who actually want to WIN this thing WHILE the battle rages on nauseates me.
And, yes, I am questioning their patriotism.
bttt
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.