Petraeus is George and Dick's pick for the job, several generals with personal integrity retired near the time he was named. Naturally we all expect his report to be a shinning support of his bosses agenda, that is the only response that would be acceptable to the Bushies.

I think it is notable that George thought he ought to go to Bagdad to get "the story strait" even with his hand picked general, supporting the idea that he does not trust Petraeus's complacency in the delusion he wants to persist in passing on to us. Truth speaks for itself and requires no framing discussions.

The purpose of Petraeus's surge was to divide the oil revenues equitably, gain a respected Iraqi policing body, gain an Iraqi military that could support a functional national government, get the personal militias to disband or come under the leadership of a beloved common government, and get the utilities back on line 24/7 and a good start on rebuilding including 100% gainful employment for each Iraqi.

None of these things are being addressed as the job is impossible for Petraeus or our military. There must be a bloodbath in Iraq with the top war lord taking over finally in the end, we can hope this warlord is "nicer" then Sadam but that hope is more related to our delusion then facts on the ground.

"Durbin, a war critic, said that for a long period of time he has exchanged e-mail with civilian employees who were gathering data for the report and writing draft portions of the findings.

"Some of them I correspond with almost on a daily basis. And when they sent a discouraging report about things that were happening in Baghdad, they were reminded by their superiors that's unacceptable; we need a positive report. They were sent back for editing changes. Now that's a fact," Durbin said."

this is true… I KNOW a lot of them!!!! thanks God somebody have the guts to tell it as it is…

Hey Durbin, wear a turban and get it over with.

Does this guy know how stupid he is?

Hooray for Senator Durbin!

Pottery Barn theory: If I break something in the barn, I'm responsbile for it.

Sucker Barn theory: After I pay for what I broke in the Pottery Barn, a huge Wild West brawl breaks out between the owners, customers and employees, and YOU seem to think AMERICAN TROOPS should have to pay for all the broken pots!!

HOORAY FOR SENATOR DURBIN!!! To heck with Bushkissers who hate our troops!!

Character asassination of Gen. Petraeus by Democrats?? He has no character, but I'm not being one-sided… the republican administration and the democratic congress have no character either.

/*** re: Petreus
He may be our last hope for peace.
***/

Wow. Straight out of "1984."

"War is peace." Sure thing.

/***
The character asassination of Gen. Petraeus by Democrats has begun. First Schumer, now Durbin. They can't accept anything that might be good news about the war.
***/

There is no good news. The surge didn't work. The government in Iraq, besides being run by a theocratic constitution, can't even get along with its own countrymen. Americans are dying everyday, many more wounded. This failure is worse than Vietnam.

Only someone with their head in the sand would continue to believe this war is going well. You heard the last blast of B.S. by Bush about the war meeting only 7 of 18 criteria for "success," and even part of those 7 were stretches of truth by Bush.
Does someone have to whack you over the head with a swastica to see what's going on?
Why should Petreus be any less of a liar than the rest of the fascist Bushies?

Get real. Bush got rid of all the military generals who were against his stupid war. Just because he found a syncophant in Petreus doesn't make that guy legitimate as anything other than a Bush apologist.

If you think the war is so grand…why don't you go enlist? Hypocrite.

Hey A. Thomas from NYC – So by your own logic we shouldn't trust any report issued by any official appointed by any administration right? And please – let's not be cute here. President Clinton did not exactly appoint grossly conservative justices to the Supreme Court, so lets not treat President Bush like he's the only one ever to appoint like-minded justices. Breyer and Ginsburg ~ they certainly don't espouse Democratic views, right??

The only report that is dishonest is the one that Durbin gave to this story. He came back from Iraq 2 weeks ago waxing poetic about the successes our troops have brought about with the Petraeus "Surge" strategy. Obviously Momma Pelosi and DaDa Murtha have gotten to him and he now is on the same B.S. spin page with : 1. Petraeus is Bush's bought and paid for General he will write what Bush wants him to. 2. Any success by our troops and Iraqi security forces will be discounted and worthless because their isn't any "Political" progress. (complete hogwash, the surge IS bringing political progress where it should be brought from the local civil and tribal leaders UP to the central government)

3. So they will push for us to turn around when we have gone 3/4 of the way across the river and head back to the shore we started from. BRILLIANT! And they can't figure out why Congress approval polls have them 10pts lower than Bush.

Brian Baird, as liberal a Dem as you will find anywhere went to Iraq and returned recently with the intellectual honesty to tell it like it is in a Seattle Times Op-Ed piece: It's working. We need to win and let this momentum move us forward. For this Baird will probably be "Liebermanized" from the party just like Joe.

There is no doubt in my mind that Gen. David Petraeus say things in the report what George Bush wants him to say. After all, George Bush appointed him to lead the Iraq war, like he appointed the surpreme court judges who share his or republican views.

In other words, the report may not worth the paper it is printed on.

Petraeus is no more than Bush's scapegoat. He doesn't have anyone else to blame for this war.Why do you think Bush spend only six (6) hours in iraq? to make sure "Puppet" Petraeus "Stay the course".

Bush Administration officials such as the notorious VP have done it before. Perpetually trying to "sell" us or get us to buy into lies, misinformation, and financially motivated agendas.

I see no reason to doubt Dick Durbin's claim.

Hey Tim, you need to get a clue! What could be good news at this point? More people are getting shot in the front of the head? No matter how hard you grope for it, a war doesn't have good news, and this one just gets worse as our idiot president bumbles along trying to seem like he's going to win something.

I could be wrong but doesn't a bullet make holes on both sides? The most interesting thing to me is to see if Dick Cheney's lips move while the general is making his report, the more practice he's gotten since they faked the intel going into this war the better he gets at manipulating our government for his buddies to rake in the US dollars.

Having a strong background in statistics, anyone can make anything favorable by easily manipulating data and how it is perceived. Bush has been manipulating statistics and information from the very beginning…getting us into this war. Now he is doing it to keep us there. The comment about congress having a lower approval rating is quite funny, given the fact that their approval rating being so low is because they cannot get us out of the war (due to Republican insistence that they made no mistake getting us involved). Petraeus is getting better approval because we do support our military and what they have been asked to do, and yet feel very sorry for what they have been asked to do.

I don't know how anyone could believe we have made success with all of the deaths going on over there on a daily basis. What complete nonsense and measurements are being used. There have been more Iraqi deaths there in a shorter time period since our surge was put into place. It's things like this that make me very tired of our current government.

Why is a Senator having daily correspondence with people charged with official responsibilities in assessing and preparing reports for the executive branch of our government? Would daily contact indicate some attempt to influence the outcomes? Of course not, he's just an interested bystander.

Tim you can "feel" whatever you want,it does'nt make it true.That's the problem with right-wingers,they don't think,they "feel."Politics is for thinking,not feeling.Emotionally ruled brains have no business in the thinking world.

The Defeatocrats are reinforcing the truth that theirs is the party of weakness on defense of this country and higher taxes to support government pork.

It is truly sad how the Defeatocrats are now spinning the information that will be released in a nagative fashion. These are the same people that voted 81 to 0 in the senate to confirm Petreaus.

Of course anything that comes across as a positive development must now be discounted or written off as wrong. These small-minded whiners can't stand to acknowledge anything positive in this war. They would rather pander to moveon.org and the rest of their far-left base than support positive developments.

Schumer's speech saying the surge had nothing to do with the succcess in Anbar province was typical of a party that wants to see us defeated in Iraq because they think it will get them more seats in the house and senate.

This is sad.

You mean this same Durbin? The one who compares our troops to the Nazi's, Soviets, and Pol Pot regimes. Give me a break. The propoganda coming from the Dems is truely anti-American and treasonous. These fake liberals are simply closet Communists.

You mean the administration might be actually LYING?? How is this even a "Bush-Patraeus" report? Isn't Patraeus just going to speak in private with Bush and then the WH writes its own report?? Poor Pat. is clearly a shill for this administration. If he actually went against the president's wishes, you can bet your bottom dollar he would be a retired general.

And in related news, when pressed to explain why he believes the report will be fauly and biased, Durbin replied, "Uhhhh, because MoveOn.org said so."

To all the tree huggers:

The reason we are still fighting and funding still goes through (and will continue) is because the actions are needed. The newly elected Democrats finally took their head out of the clouds and looked at the evidence, maybe all you tree huggers can follow their lead.

YOU CAN BET ON IT THAT THE WHITE HOUSE CAN AND WILL LIE ABOUT IT. IT WILL NOT BE THE GENERALS REPORT. IT WILL BE THE PACK OF LIES OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE. REMEMBER WE ARE KICKING ASS IN IRAQ, SO THE DECIDER SAYS. THIS WILL ALL BE ABOUT STAYING THE COURSE.JUST GIVE MORE AND MORE MONEY SO WE CAN STILL KICK BUT.BUT THE SURGE HAS NOT MADE ONE BIT OF DIFFERENCE EXCEPT WE HAVE MORE TROOPS TO BE KILLED. BUSH IS TOTALY INSANE.

we've barely flexed our biceps in Iraq, you creep Durbin. You compared our troops to Nazis, now you're calling them our "sons and daughters"?

p.s. Real Americans will never forgive you for calling our troops Nazis.

Unlike (likely) some of your posters, I'VE MET AL QUAEDA MEMBERS.

They are COMMITTED to killing "infidels" (non Salafists) no matter their diplomatic efforts.

Until the next, devastating attack, we lack the common identity AS AMERICANS and will to prevent it.

Our political and uniformed military leaders have made significant mistakes, no doubt. Republican, Democratic, civilian, political and career.

Our inability to join together to protect us all is only OUR fault.

1. Is violence in Iraq down?

* Overall civilian deaths in all of Iraq have risen.
* The number of civilian deaths increased to 1,809 in August from 1,760 in July.
* The number of car bombings in July was 5 percent higher than in December 2006.
* May was the deadliest month in 2007, with 1,901 civilian deaths in comparison to 2,172 in December of 2006. …

10. Has the quality of life improved for ordinary Iraqis?

* Iraq is ranked second in a list of the world’s most badly failing states.
* There are now more than 2.4 million Iraqi refugees living in the Middle East
* Militias are seizing control of electrical switching stations and using them to increase their military and political power.
* Iraq is only meeting 50 percent of electrical demand.
* 70 percent of Iraqis lack adequate water supplies, compared to 50 percent in 2003.
* The U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Team program is under-funded, lacks clear objectives, suffers from repeated leadership changes, and has a staff of which 95 percent lack the cultural knowledge and Arabic-language skills needed to work with Iraqis.
* Oxfam says that one-third of the Iraqi population is in need of emergency aid.
* One quarter (28 percent) of Iraqi children are malnourished and 15 percent of the total population—4 million Iraqis—cannot buy enough food.

Tim,

The report does not matter anymore. The White House has already made up their mind that we are gonna stick around in Iraq. We have been told to wait on this report for months now just so the administration has more time to come up with catch phrases such as "Mission Accomplished" and "in the last throws". More and more of our troops die each day and for what? The administration has shifted the reasons for being in Iraq so many times that I don't think they even remember why we are there. This is not a character asassination. We have to get out of Iraq now!!!

Tim, you're right. How dare THEY impugn the integrity of someone that Generalissimo Bush has chosen to hide behind. That would be so unlike that Profiles In Courage President to try & spin facts to suit his desired position.

The Democrats have become the party of hate. That all consuming hatred that blinds you like a rabid dog. That is the party of Hillary and Obama that I see..

Petraeus was appointed with the full support of Congress. Now half are trying to assasinate his decorated charater. Is there any wonder why the Dems are considered weak on defense?

I'm sorry to say this, but the credibility of the impending Petraeus testimony was greatly tarnished when it was announced that the White House would be writing the report. The Administration has already set up a bitter partisan battle.

Why would anyone think anything other than the fact that Petraeus's report would be manipulated by the White House? Remember, he is a General in the Army. Bush is the Commander-in-Chief. You tell your boss what he wants to hear, not always the truth. Petraeus falls in the same category as all of Bush's "good ole boys" that have led this country down the path of decadence. Lies, manipulation, fraud, illegalities, deception, greed, and many other attributes seem to be qualities of anyone that is associated with this administration. Thank God, we only have several more months to put up with this lunacy.

Bush and his pals have a record of talking out of both sides of their mouths. Just peruse this: We are told that terrorism is something to be feared so we give up the rights and freedoms untold U S military men and women have died to protect. Next, we have a gaping hole in our borders which even the most uneducated transgressor can pass through. Next, we have the North American Superhighway, which Bush supports additionally compromising our sovereignty. All espoused by Bush as needful. I get a headache just listening to those dimwits who think I'm equal in intelligence to themselves. By virtue of the fact that it is an administration statement or report,,, it is by definition a lie.

To: Tim, Cincinnati, OH

What if those emails are true, does that not concern you that people are being told to redo Iraq intel reports?

Sen. Durbin is another one heavily invested in defeat in Iraq. It's almost as if bad things happening to America would be good for Democratic candidates. Just ask Rep. Jim Clyburn.

Figures. The neg spin from the dems begins befor the report is even out. Perhaps if the dems tried to make America better instead of cheerleading for our enemies then something useful could get accomplished in the Federal gov't.

WOW – George Bush goes over to Iraq to compare notes with General Petraeus and now George's war is looking rosy!

We the people don't believe a word of it! We have been lied to for over 6 years on a variety of subjects, now we're supposed to believe that we are finally winning the Iraq civil war? Just who is winning and who is getting long term oil contracts?

Prove your sources Durbin…Another baseless accusation from a Dem that is trying to score political points about Iraq. I'm really starting to believe that they want us to lose the war in an effort to win elections. And if the last election is any example, they will do little different.

No surprise here!

The Cheney/Bush Adm. has been manipulating the intel all along!

Why would they stop now?

Unfortunately Tim, distrust of everything coming out of this morally bankrupt administration is its' only legacy. It's very hard to cull unadulterated fact from political spin when spinning is all Bush/Cheney/Rove have been competent at.

Why is this senator 'corresponding' with private civilians on a daily basis other than to attempt to manipulate what they report? Lovely that he even says he's doing stuff he shouldn't.

Consistently – ANY good news about Iraq is summarily dismissed by many in Washington.

General Patraeus has an impecable reputation and was approved by the senate 81-0. One would THINK the General should get an opportunity to first present his findings BEFORE democrats begin their onslaught of character assassignation and maligning this good man??

I'm afraid there are some in Washington who are routing for terrible losses as opposed to progress in Iraq. "Losses" help their political position – so they think.

Posted By Tim, Cincinnati, OH : September 7, 2007 6:25 pm

Tim, Did you get that memo?.

Any body capable of breating air and having a tiny bit of the oxygen go to its brain already knows the infamous report is crap.

You Repugs can place Petraeus up there next to your god(s) and worship him until you feel good about yourselves. Enjoy and good luck.

Typical Democrats statements. Can't handle success or the truth, just sit back and hope America loses, nice!
Just plain terrible these Lefties are.

Poor DICK here is just a classic liberal who has made up his mind that despite proven progress, there can be no positive remarks about the progress THAT HAS BEEN MADE AND IS BEING MADE in Iraq. You Bush haters really need an education (beyond your moveon.org bible). Your hatred of the President only divides the country even further. Why are liberals so intent on making sure we lose this war? Can you at least HEAR the report before you discredit it? And when did it become the Bush-Petraeus report? Last I checked, the general was running the operations on the ground. Your treasonous Bush hatred has blinded most liberals into actually believing the "Bumper sticker" terrorist mentality of idiots like Edwards and little Dick Durbin here. Please, enroll in a history course and research what happens to nations when they simply ignore threats and stick their head in the sand.

"Some of them I correspond with on almost a daily basis" makes me wonder who's trying to manipulate whom.

I don't know who to believe anymore. If data shows the surge is working then the democrats look like fools. If data shows the surge isn't working the administration looks like fools. Both groups have a vested interest in manipulating or spinning the data being present.

It doesn't surprise me at all that a leading democrat would start the spinning process even before the data is published.

Anybody that doesn't already know that ALL information regarding Iraq has been so bent,spindled and mutilated that it is completely useless to anyone.This war STARTED with a pack of lies.Why on earth does ANYONE think that this rogue president and his thugs have changed?
To cite a joke about what should have been on Nixon's tombstone is a phrase that the "Good ship Georgie Boy" has taken to a whole new level:Here LIES George W. Bush!

The cost of this war, by the time we withdrawl our troops, pay for their rehabilitation, replace our equipment, and bury the dead, will far exceed 1 Trillion Dollars.

That is over $2,000 for every man woman and child in the US. $8,000 for a family of 4.

In addition to the dire financial cost we have cost ourselves much more in relationships and repectability around the world.

Its time we put an end to this and find the people who actually attacked us.

What if you get shot in the side of the head?

I don't understand where the outrage is with the American people. The obsfication and mis-information delivered by this administration is truly outrageous and alarming.

We have been lied to from the beginning and there seems to be no end in sight.

We can not allow this to continue!

The character asassination of Gen. Petraeus by Democrats has begun. First Schumer, now Durbin. They can't accept anything that might be good news about the war. Can we hear about the report before we decide how we feel about it??

He may be our last hope for peace. It seems Pelosi is off being a fasionista, and holds the purse strings to the war.

What part of NO MORE FUNDING do they not understand?

Where is Howard Dean? Do any of our democrats have the guts to stand up
to Lindsey Ann Graham.

Jack Jett

Without regard to what is happening in Baghdad or elsewhere, the critical path limitation on this war is our number of troops, which cannot sustain the pre-surge level much beyond Spring 2008. If Webb's bill for minimum R&R succeeds, the drawdown must be even faster.

UH OH!!! Looks like bushi is in some trouble now if those emails come to the open. Bush- what an idiot.

Great! I am glad we are going to get all the lies we have been told in writing. It is easy for the numbers to be fudged when Bush's people are writing the report.

That is correct… if you want the truth, see the GAO Senate Foreign relations committee report testimony on cspan. It is a grim reality and explains why the Administration had a little tussle over adding to the benchmarks. Even rep Tom Davis at a townhall meeting said the Administration would likely tweek the report. Bush better start having an ear open to Murtha and Warner. Falsified reports aren't good for our soldiers and aint gettin us no closer to killing Bin Laden. We are expending resources thin, oh but the contractors over there love it. They've made so much money and havent accomplished anything.

Some Democrats are disgraceful. This is like a bad legal plea. "The report is bad. BUT in case it is not, the Bush administration is lying!" Durbin has no shame. It's nice to have 1/2 of the country pulling against America in this war. Every dead soldier and every bad report equals more votes for people like this and they are well aware of that.

Of course it must be manipulated, Senator Durbin said so!!

I could have told you in April, he would say that the report was flawed.

Not to be 'stinky', but this woman CLEARLY lacks the tact and class needed to be a first lady. She also seems jealous of her husband's success and her little 'real life' rants about her husband are killing his chances of being president. It's very unfortunate because he seems like a great choice until she opens her mouth.

David Petraeus is nothing but an honorable man, and for Dick Durbin to say otherwise is downright asinine, as well as a lie. The man has not even delivered his report that WILL be debated, and already we see our incompetent leaders spewing their venom. Quit silencing the honorable people of this country before they speak and undermining the integrity our military; which, sadly, goes for both parties.