Petraeus grants a big interview with Murdoch’s newspaper The Australian, in order to help John Howard in upcoming elections, who is in trouble largely because of his continued support for the Iraq war. He tells the people of Australia this:
General Petraeus told The Australian during a face-to-face interview at his Baghdad headquarters there had been a 75 per cent reduction in religious and ethnic killings since last year, a doubling in the seizure of insurgents’ weapons caches between January and August, a rise in the number of al-Qa’ida “kills and captures” and a fall in the number of coalition deaths from roadside bombings.
Some of this is incredibly deceptive, dishonest distortion. Some of it is outrageous omission. But it’s also intentional outright falsehood and lying. All you have to do is read the recent AP report on Iraqi civilian deaths nearly doubling since pre-surge levels to understand that Petraeus wants to mislead people in the worst possible way. He is being totally dishonest, and it’s for partisan political reasons inside another country. I don’t care how many Democratic Senators praise Petraeus as a great general, brilliant man in a tough job, etc. He has transformed himself into a willing political tool. It’s sickening.
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