Gen. Petraeus: Lying Coward

I've been getting a lot of e-mails the last few months from one Leah Johnson. She is with a group called Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.
Here's the latest.

"Petraeus Report" a Lie: September Estimate Will Be Written by White House, and Pennsylvanians call on Rep. Dent to Responsibly End This War.

"WASHINGTON - Last week President Bush added to his record of deceiving the American people when it was discovered that the "Petraeus Report" - the mid-September estimate of military and political "progress" in Iraq which was touted as being authored by Army General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker - will actually be authored by White House aides, not the general himself. Worse yet, the White House is already trying to spin this report to indicate success when in fact it is evident that Iraq is nothing more than an escalating quagmire.
Pennsylvanians, like 70 percent of the American people, are calling on their leaders to take steps to end this war. Over the summer the major newspapers around Pennsylvania have editorialized against the failed Bush Iraq policy, all calling for an end to President Bush's endless war."

It is apparently the stated position of the Ms. Johnson and the AAEI that Gen. David Petraeus, unanimously approved by Congress to be the top commander of all U.S. troops in Iraq, will allow the White House to rewrite his true and honest assessment of the situation in Iraq. In so doing, even before the report has been made, Johnson is tacitly accusing Petraeus of being a dishonorable stooge, willing to see his own true assessment of the facts on the ground misrepresented and twisted. And will keep his mouth shut when it happens.
Ms. Johnson's low opinion of the Gen. Petraeus is only exceeded by her low opinion of the White House and the American public.
By many accounts, including in the New York Times and elsewhere, the surge and Gen. Petraeus' new aggressive strategy is working.
Even Democratic presidential candidates are starting to back off their demands for an immediate pullout, which by almost all accounts would be a disaster for both America and Iraq, not to mention the Middle East as a whole.
Still, there remain plenty of people like Ms. Johnson who are demanding an immediate pullout regardless of the consequences.
The fact is, they don't care what happens in Iraq as long as it is bad and they can blame someone else for it having occurred.
Such people bristle at being called "defeatists" but they don't hesitate to suggest men like Gen. Petraeus are political flunkys and liars.
More reasonable and fair-minded people will wait to hear what the general says when he reports back to congress in September before making up their minds whether he is a liar or not.