5 Metrics of the Petraeus Report

Austin Bay reveals what he thinks our man in Iraq, General David Petraeus, will report to Congress on September 15. His list includes 13, but here are the Top 5:


1). Number of trained and equipped Iraqi troops and their level of training
2). Number of qualified Iraqi senior and mid-level military officers (key measure: can they plan and lead their own ops?)
3). Number and locale of police precincts judged competent and minimally corrupt (and don’t mention Chicago to me — I know minimally corrupt applies to places in the US — like every Texas border town)
4). Number of “extremist violence” related incidents (incline, steady, or decline) and location of incidents
5). An assessment of the “demonstrated commitment” of key sheiks and local leaders in terms of cooperating with security forces and development teams – perhaps analyzed on a neighborhood by neighborhood level.



Do read the rest. Here's hoping the Congress and the rest of America will give our troops a fair hearing. Because, if we get Iraq wrong, then likely the whole War on Terror is in jeopardy.