The General's Moment

The New York Post is more impressed:

"Calm and unflinching, the four-star U.S. commander in Iraq impressed even hard-core war critics in Congress yesterday, announcing that some troops can begin coming home this month, 30,000 can return by next summer, and even more joyous reunions are on the horizon."

But in some ways, the battle is just beginning:

"Even as Gen. David Petraeus told Congress he expects to withdraw a Marine contingent from battle this month and about 30,000 more troops by next summer," says the Chicago Tribune, "skeptical Democratic leaders set the stage Monday for more furious debate over the war by planning votes as early as next week to pull troops out much faster."

With all the focus on American public opinion, what about the people whose country we're supposedly saving?

"Barely a quarter of Iraqis say their security has improved in the past six months, a negative assessment of the surge in U.S. forces that reflects worsening public attitudes across a range of measures, even as authorities report some progress curtailing violence.

"Apart from a few scattered gains, a new national survey by ABC News, the BBC and the Japanese broadcaster NHK finds deepening dissatisfaction with conditions in Iraq, lower ratings for the national government and growing rejection of the U.S. role there."

Will anything change as a result of this week's proceedings? Not a chance, says HuffPost's Marty Kaplan:

"Magical September will make Republicans no less likely to wag their lapdog tails at the White House, or to rattle their cut-and-run sabers at the Democrats, than will Magical March, the probable next location of the turning-point mirage. Democrats, for their part, will seize on the possible January withdrawal of one brigade of the surge as a bipartisan triumph, and their fear of being branded anti-troop and pro-terrorist by a bunch of chickenhawk demagogues will lead them to hail a non-binding non-deadline nonconditional footnote to the next defense appropriation as though they had drawn some heroic line in the sand."

In the continuing debate over how we got here, Slate's Fred Kaplan can't believe that one mystery remains unresolved:

"It was a move that put 250,000 young Iraqi men out of a job, out on the streets, angry, and armed--and all but guaranteed the violent chaos to come.

"In Robert Draper's new book, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush (which was excerpted in Slate), Bush blamed L. Paul Bremer, who was head of the U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority during the occupation's first year, for the decision . . .