Talk:Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq

message: This is like spruced up PR copy from the White House Communications Department.  Where's the neutrality?
: Where is it not neutral? TBSchemer 23:08, 14 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Please sign your statements on the talk page by using four tildes (the ~). Revolutionaryluddite 01:52, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Untitled

message: Ideally, the article should include criticism of the report-- from reliable sources, of course, not moveon.org-- as well as details about the White House's and Congressional Republican's plans in wake of it. Revolutionaryluddite 01:51, 15 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I've expanded the section. Revolutionaryluddite 05:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Response 

message: Five images seems like way too many for an article of this size. Revolutionaryluddite 05:02, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It has three now. Revolutionaryluddite 17:04, 16 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Images 

message: Kirill Lokshin has stated that:
The article seems very heavy on the political aspects of the report, particularly the response to it, but light on the substance.  A large portion of the article should be devoted to summarizing the content of the report itself; as it is, there's only hints of this material in the testimony sections.  I'd suggest reorganizing the article along these lines:
# Lead
# Background
# Content of report
# Congressional testimony
# Responses
Kirill 02:52, 20 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Petraeus' report made three central claims, as referred to by the three visual aids. First, the number of attacks on coalition forces has decreased. Second, the number of Iraqi civilians murdered by terrorists has decreased. Third, the number of secretarian attacks in Baghdad has decreased. I'm not sure how to best summarize this in the article. Revolutionaryluddite 02:35, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Moveon.org ad controversy has some good references about the data disputes around the three points. Also, The Washington Post recently ran an article saying "The evidence of a drop in violence in Iraq is becoming hard to dispute." Revolutionaryluddite 05:28, 21 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Peer Review 

message: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi posted on her official blog The Gavel an "Iraq Reporting Fact Check" on Spetember 10.  I don't think this should be referenced in the article. It's a blog statement that isn't notable enough to be commented on in the media.
The blog also distorts the record. It counters Petreaus' statement "As a bottom line up front, the military objectives of the surge are, in large measure, being met." with "But by all accounts, including that of General Petraeus, the Iraqi government’s political progress is stalled." This is a classic bait and switch. Pelosi goes on to take Petraeus' words in a previous letter out of context.
The blog counters "Coalition and Iraqi operations have helped reduce ethno-sectarian violence" with "Violence - particularly sectarian violence - is a constant and pervasive threat in Iraq"-- another classic bait and switch. She quotes a MSNBC story saying "the death toll from sectarian attacks around the country is running nearly double the pace from a year ago" without noting that the story also reports "This year’s U.S. troop buildup has succeeded in bringing violence in Baghdad down from peak levels" and "Baghdad has gone from representing 76 percent of all civilian and police war-related deaths in Iraq in January to 52 percent in July, bringing it back to the same spot it was roughly a year ago." The story concludes that US forces have made "some military headway, but extremist factions are far from broken." It notes that "The U.S. military did not get all the additional American forces into Iraq until June 15", which Pelosi and the Democrats completely ignore.
I could go on and on with this, but my point is that Pelosi's blog is not a reliable, independent third-party source of information. Revolutionaryluddite 20:06, 29 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blog Criticism of the report 

message: The article really needs to discuss what the public opinion reaction in Iraq was. Revolutionaryluddite 05:30, 5 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: The section looks good now. Revolutionaryluddite 21:28, 15 October 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Iraqi Response to the Report 

message: I wrote the above article when the interim report got a bit of press back in July, but I don't think it's notable enough to leave it in its own article (minimal press coverage from a single day). Besides that, it's intimately connected to the final report, so a merge won't be terribly disruptive. I can't find any Clinton or Obama reaction to the final report, so I'll condense that from the first article and merge it here. Any objections?--chaser - t 11:27, 20 November 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I think that is a good idea. (Although, offically, I'm supposed to have retired- so my opinion doesn't count). Revolutionaryluddite (talk) 23:04, 13 December 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Clinton Remarks:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxXLsWmmkmo  Leobold1 (talk) 02:34, 8 February 2008 (UTC)

text: Obama Remarks:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIUej6VJzII  Leobold1 (talk) 02:38, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed merger of [[Initial Benchmark Assessment Report]] 

message: The Report to Congress on the Situation in Iraq (sometimes referred to as the Petraeus Report) was a two-part report released on Sept 10, 2007 by General of the Multinational force in Iraq David H. Petraeus
 
This should read "General David H. Petraeus, Commander of the Multi-National Force in Iraq" Leobold1 (talk) 02:29, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Opening Sentence