David Kurtz wonders if this is a "moment of ... befuddlement" (link):
You don't want to put too much emphasis on one response over two days of hearings, but when Sen. John Warner (R-VA) asked Gen. Petraeus a short time ago if victory in Iraq would make America safer, Petraeus hedged before saying, "I don't know." Perhaps it was just a moment of uncharacteristic befuddlement for the general, but if the answer to that question isn't a resounding yes, then, even on the Bush Administration's own terms, it's time to start loading up the troop carriers in Kuwait and bring our people home.
I don't think it was a moment of befuddlement. I don't even think it was an isolated respose. I heard him say something very similar in the house hearings yesterday. Asked yesterday whether the AQI will follow us home he said, in effect, "I don't know." In a similar vein, I heard him asked yesterday whether he thought our military was overstretched worldwide. His answer was, in effect, "above my paygrade."
Of course this might just be prudent marketing: start pontificating on the whole planet and you look like a total gasbag. But I think Petraeus may have been glad of a chance to stay off the hook on issues where his answers would not follow the party line.
Update: Well, maybe not (link).
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