Cred and Circuses In The House — Still Smarting From Yesterday

The House Armed Services Committee is hearing testimony from Gen. Petraeus and Amb. Crocker today, following yesterday’s tour de snores in the Senate. Despite media attempts to gin up a battle royale between the presidential candidates, it was left to a no-longer-contender to score the knockout in yesterday’s hearing. As dday at Digby’s highlights, Spencer Ackerman caught a whopper from yesterday’s Senate hearings courtesy of a pointed Sen. Biden question:

That was a very significant moment at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings with Amb. Ryan Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus. Joe Biden asked Amb. Crocker whether it would be better for American national security interests to eliminate Al Qaeda in Iraq or Al Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Crocker had nowhere to hide with that question. Spencer Ackerman describes the outcome.

Crocker, in an impossible political position — give the correct answer and humiliate the Bush administration; give the administration’s answer and look like a fool — dodged as much as he could. Then Biden forced him down. Crocker: "I would therefore pick Al Qaeda on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border."

Game over.

Every single argument that the Administration and their lapdogs like John McCain have made or are making break down after that answer. The Ambassador to Iraq just admitted that Iraq is not the central front in the war on terror. He just admitted that the potential for Al Qaeda to gain a beachhead in Iraq should the United States withdraw is miniscule compared to the already-established beachhead along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He admitted that the global fight against terror is currently misdirected.

What we need is a Responsible Plan to get out of Iraq … not more marking time on a strategy that is failing us on all fronts.

(YouTube is Brig. Gen. John Johns (ret), the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense discussing the Democratic challengers’ plan to responsibly end the war in Iraq. )

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