Petraeus talks to grumpy old white men

I watched a bit of Petraeus’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee today. The hearing really made clear that Obama’s too-clever-by-a-half Afghanistan strategy, starting to pull out of Afghanistan in July 2011 if conditions in Afghanistan warrant, isn’t holding any longer. There was no middle ground (Democrats wanted to know if July 2011 meant July 2011 and Republicans wanted to know if facts on the ground meant facts on the ground).

I don’t blame the grumpy old white men for this. It’s Obama’s fault. He is trying to have it both ways (to dems: yes, we’re leaving; to the GOP: but not quite yet). This problem is not going away, rather its going to intensify as July 2011 (just a short 12 months away) nears.