John T. Reed watched the Petraeus testimony, and posted a detailed critique on his blog, here. An excerpt:
Bloodbath if we leave
We are repeatedly told that there will be a bloodbath if we leave.
We were told that in Vietnam as well. It was correct in Vietnam. There was a blood bath known as the Killing Fields in Cambodia and another known as the boat people in Vietnam after we left.
But the embarrassing fact is that while the American people regret the post-pull-out civilian deaths in Southeast Asia, we would do the exact same thing only sooner if we had it to do over again. Simply stated, the American people did not care about the deaths of the Cambodian and Vietnamese civilians at the hands of the Communists in Southeast Asia nor do they care about the likely future deaths of Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Sure, they care enough to wring their hands and make statements against it, but they do not care enough to spend another 600 billion dollars or another 5,000 U.S. military lives.
Most Americans probably think that a civil war in Iraq could not happen to a nicer bunch of ungrateful, religious nut cakes. Nobody, not Petraeus or anyone else, is talking about that elephant in the room...
