I'm sure they are already on their third draft. I mean, why wait until september to write it when you already know what the answer is.

Is anybody surprised? Was there ever any doubt about who would be writing the report? How a man like Petraeus, who lives in a world where honor is (should be?) of primary importance, can hand his balls over to hacks in civilian government, is beyond me.

This is certainly not a surprise. This is a Sovietist government (As I have said before, I think the Republican party takes the Communist Party of the Soviet Union as their ultimate model of how to operate), and of course the Politburo will want to have final say on what such an important document will say down to every phrase and bullet point.

So much for this being an objective report based on the facts on the ground, unless the ground happens to be the rug in the oval office: "Optimistic Guy Comes to Work."

I hope the writer knows how to spell "credible."

We all knew they were going to be writing it, but it takes brass rocks to announce it in advance. Maybe it'll help convince those stonewalling Republicans to give up the damn fight already. (I know, I'm a crazy dreamer.)

People in the Bush administration are actually acknowledging this? How can they possibly believe that a report written under these circumstances is possibly going to impose on anyone?

That little tidbit about the report being written in the White House didn't appear until the 6th to last paragraph in the article. Not only will Petraeus' "recommendations" come from the White House, Amb. Crocker's will as well!

Ha!

They're bottling bull piss and offering it up as Champagne. Same old same old from these guys.

And Hitler won in Stalingrad, or so he said.

What, are we living in the 1600s when sailing ships had to carry the diplomatic dispatches across the bounding seas?

I must have heard Bush say at least 50 times, "we have to wait for Petraeus to come back in September to hear his report."

Uh. There are things called telephones and fax machines, radios and TVs and stuff like that.

I picture Bush dressed up like Caesar waiting at the dock for Mark Anthony (Petraeus) to debark with his legions.

"What news do you bring from the Egyptian campaign, Mark Anthony?"

"Not good, Caesar Au-bushy!"

"I hooked up with Cleopatra and got the clap."

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

I mean, I didn't expect Petraeus to write it by hand on a yellow legal pad and hand it to us, but jeez! How many times has Bush referred to Petraeus' report? Example:

I'm going to wait for David to come back -- David Petraeus to come back and give us the report on what he sees. And then we'll use that data, that -- his report to work with the rest of the military chain of command, and members of Congress, to make another decision, if need be. http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070712-5.html

As if it was Petraeus' Report. I guess I didn't hear the lower case "r" each time Bush said "report"--"report" as in "I'll let you know."

Crikey.

Pre-"spun" information handed-over to the masters of deceit for homogenization. You can bet your bottom dollar that Cheney's drool will be all over that baby. Make no mistake, the report will begin with a disclaimer that things are tough in Iraq and then be heavenly spun into a neo-con version of the "Sounds of Music". Except in this version, truth be known, the hills are dead...

I just love the silly Salonistas sitting in their comfy chairs in air conditioned rooms making judgments about things in Iraq when in fact they have no idea what's really going on there.

But you're so ideologically blinded by BDS that you are actually cheering for us to lose. It would be truly funny if it wasn't so truly sad--and frightening.

Have fun continuing your pathetic liberal pissing and moaning once the new international caliphate has been established because you chose your ideological preferences over fighting an enemy that will destroy us given the chance.

There's a sucker born every minute, and you should never give one an even break.

So, here's how this will play out. The incredulous beltway punditocracy will somehow spin this as SOP.

"Reports from people on the ground are always written by the people who are supposed to be receiving the reports."

Those that question it will framed as partisan and not "serious."

The Betray us report will be hailed as the definitive source for all "serious" policy discussions in Iraq. The presnit will ask for more troops and money. Congress will approve it, rinse, repeat.

"Be what you would seem to be, or if you'd like it put more simply: Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."

Alice in Wonderland

Knowing that this report by Commanders on the Ground, LLC, will validate his tactics in Iraq must be one reason that Bush claims to sleep well every night. They're probably already working on the next Friedman unit's report as well.

Right, like you do know. You're sitting somewhere in an air conditioned room drooling with mad-Bush disease thinking Betrayus isn't boot licking a mad-man's version of a reality he and his ilk dreamed-up in air conditioned rooms while sitting on the stacks of money they made creating this chaos. I, for one, have posted my last response to your reality. Nonetheless, feel secure. Darth Rove has departed to an "undisclosed location" (probably air conditioned too) to laugh his ass-off because he's fooled people like you for a decade or more. A simply amazing achievement when you think about it. That is between vomiting...