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General Petraeus is providing his "report" on the status of Iraq. I have no doubt that we hear very little TRUTH about what goes on in Iraq, much less any REAL TRUTH about what goes on in every day government in Washington.

Michael Yon is an amazing hands on journalist that has so far maintained the most truthful coverage of anyone I've seen coming out of that region. I am so pleased with his forthrightness, and his "no need" to be first, or politically correct. He just tells it like it is, and I think this is a great summary of how we should handle Petraeus' newest findings...let's wait and see a bit. More than that, could we just ask the right people? Let's just find the truth.

Let's let all the "be first" speculators report what they will, and do the conservative patient thing, and find the real folks to let us know. Let's find some people actually doing the hard stuff tell us the next move to make. Let's try to get our people out, while still trying to accomplish something with the folks in Iraq that will be a positive resolution to a war on forever. Terrorism will be forever, so we must be careful how it's handled.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

"But here is a hint to journalists who are seeking truth — good or bad. There is one group of officers whose input has invariably proved both relevant and revelatory for me in compiling my work: battalion commanders who are commanding infantry or special operations units. Special operations people are unlikely to go on record, but the special operations people that I’ve talked with tend to be very knowledgeable and frank, and their input on background is critical. As for the infantry battalion commanders, they are the proverbial sweet spot. Battalion command sergeant majors can be excellent, too, but they often will not go on record. Battalion commanders will tend to be willing to go on record, and will tend to talk to journalists...

...Discerning which officers to talk to is rather like the story of the three bears: Some beds are too big, some beds are too small, but one bed is just right. For this report, the fairy tale translates into something like this: company commander (captain; too small for purposes of the upcoming report); battalion command (lieutenant colonel; just right); brigade commander (colonel; getting too large, but usually is also a good interview); division commander (major general; too large)."

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