Tim Grieve is hot-hot-hot today. He catches Petraeus out in a lie an episode of dementia.
...Things in Iraq sometimes turn out better than anyone could have expected. "When I testified in January," he said by way of example, "no one would have dared to forecast that Anbar province would have been transformed the way it has in the past six months."
In fact, as Think Progress reports, someone could have anticipated progress in Anbar back then, and that someone was Gen. Petraeus. In his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in January 2007, Petraeus talked up progress in the Anbar province, saying there "appears to be a trend in the positive direction where sheikhs are stepping up, and they do want to be affiliated with and supported by the U.S. Marines and Army forces who are in Anbar province."
Meanwhile, from the New York Times' blog:
U.S. Base Near Iran?, 4:15 p.m. Eastern Gen. Petraeus offered an surprisingly easy answer to a question about a report that the U.S. was building a base near the border with Iran. “There is already a base,” he replied. He hadn’t seen the report, which was in The Wall Street Journal, but he confirmed several of the details, including that it will be staffed by a brigade from the republic of Georgia.
Oh goody. But will the guys being brought in from the republic of Georgia remember how to make Subways and do lattes the right way?
