Same as the last time...Everything is better, but very fragile...Sure sounds like they want the 1oo year---McCain Plan to me.

Crocker: ...almost everything in Iraq is hard, but hard does not mean hopeless

He sounds like a basketball coach telling his team during a time out----that even though they are losing by thirty five points with 6 minutes left to go, they still have a chance to win,...Win, exactly?

NY Times: The general told senators that he was recommending a 45-day pause — which he defined as a period of “consolidation and evaluation” — before reviewing once again whether there should be further troop reductions.

Duncan notes:

A few minutes ago Candy Crowley told me that the presidential candidates need to appear "above the partisanship," or something like that, at the Senate hearings with Petraeus. I don't even know what that means, but to the extent that I do... uh, why?

I heard the same thing on NBC. How fast will McCain's camp product an ad with footage from the hearings? Will Crowley complain about it?

A man yelled : Bring them HOME!

General P. wouldn't give an estimate about troop levels at the end of the year. He admits the Basra assault. "It was not adequately planned."