Day 2...No "light at the end of the tunnel..."

This from The New York Times afternoon update, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker testifying to the Senat Foreign Relations Committee:

Again and again, Mr. Crocker said there would be no clear “victory” in Iraq. Success there may become clear only in retrospect.

Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, a fellow Republican who had not previously been an outspoken critic of the White House, said it was clear that “we got a lot more than we bargained for” in Iraq, and that the campaign had been hobbled from the start by poor planning.

General Petraeus, for instance, referred once again to the deep-seated sectarian rivalries in Iraq (“This competition will take place”), and said the overriding question was whether that competition could ever become peaceful. That made Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, very unhappy. It just was not right, he said, that Americans should die so that Iraqis could spend their energies in “a competition for power and resources, not for nation-building.” General Petraeus said again that, while the 30,000 extra troops dispatched to Iraq this year could be pulled out by next summer, the “pre-surge” strength of 130,000 should be maintained. He told the committee that the views expressed in his testimony were his own and not the White House’s.

"...more than we bargained for...poor planning..." And that from a Republican Senator.

Trust, but verify. The problem has become, just whom should we trust? The President?!?

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