So did Gen. Petraeus say anything to justify another $102 billion and another 1,000 U.S. deaths in Iraq? I can't find anything.

But it looks like Ambassador Ryan Crocker really screwed the pooch. Sen. Joe Biden asked Crocker a fundamental strategic question at the heart of Bush's "war on terror": would it be better to eliminate Al Qaeda in Iraq or Al Qaeda along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border? After beating around the Bush, Crocker finally said:

"I would therefore pick Al Qaeda on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border."

In other words, we're fighting the wrong damn war. As dday writes,

Game over.

Every single argument that the Administration and their lapdogs like John McCain have made or are making break down after that answer. The Ambassdor to Iraq just admitted that Iraq is not the central front in the war on terror. He just admitted that the potential for Al Qaeda to gain a beachhead in Iraq should the United States withdraw is miniscule compared to the already-established beachhead along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. He admitted that the global fight against terror is currently misdirected.

Whether the military is lowering casualties in Iraq or not, or whether political reconciliation is occurring or not, or whether Prime Minister Maliki won in Basra or Muqtada al-Sadr did, none of this is germane given the new information we just received here. We invaded Iraq to attack a group that did not attack us on 9-11, and we are continuing in Iraq and continuing to ignore the group that did attack us. So our policy is being held captive to developments inside Iraq while the terrorist threat that was supposed to be the impetus for this war and occupation in the first place goes on literally unabated.

The invasion of Iraq - where Al Qaeda did not exist - diverted our attention from Afghanistan, where it has only gotten stronger. It's exactly the argument John Kerry made in 2004, and the entire Republican Party attacked him for it. Now Bush's own Ambassador to Iraq admits it.

It's long past time for Democrats to cut all funds for Iraq, bring our troops safely home, and impeach Bush and Cheney.