1115.org

You may have read or heard some or all of the following statements.

Gen. David Petraeus: During Secretary Gates’ recent visit to Iraq, we agreed that in early September, Ambassador Ryan Crocker and I would provide an assessment of the situation in Iraq with respect to our mission and offer recommendations on the way ahead. We will be forthright in that assessment, as I believe I have been with you today.

George Bush: I see (September) as an important moment, because David Petraeus says that’s when he’ll have a pretty good assessment as to what the effect of the surge has been

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.): Many of my Republican colleagues have been promised they will get a straight story on the surge by September. I won’t be the only Republican, or one of two Republicans, demanding a change in our disposition of troops in Iraq at that point. That is very clear to me.

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.): September is the key. If we don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel, September is going to be a very bleak month for this administration.

These statements may have led you to believe that come September we will be given an assessment of the extent to which the surge has been working.

And here’s how wrong you would be. Over to Tony Snow, to set you straight:

I think in September you will have the first opportunity to have a little bit of a metric to see what happens when you have all the forces in place for the Baghdad security plan. I mean, that I think — if you want a definitive judgment, I’ve warned from the very beginning about expecting some sort of magical thing to happen in September.
[…]
And I think at that juncture you’re going to be able to have a little more granularity, as they say.
[…]
No, it’s not backpedaling. It’s just — it seems to me to be such a vast metaphysical question –
[…]
But the point is — yes … yes, I know, but I’m saying — you talk about the surge. The surge is not an overnight thing. As you’ve just pointed out, it takes more than four months to get forces in-theater. It takes another couple of months to get them fully integrated in-theater. And therefore what we’re saying, now that you got all the forces in place, you know, really by — some of these forces will not be fully integrated until July or August. So what you’re going to get is a preliminary look, where you are going to be able to have some metrics about how it works when you got all the pieces in place.

At least when Tony Snow steps up to the podium, the absurd is fully integrated in-theater. There is that to be grateful for.