Preliminary Recap Of Petraeus' Report

I haven't had a chance to look over the whole of the report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker, but here are a few highlights that have already come out:

Democrat criticism: Before the reports were actually given, several Democrats accused Petraeus of being a liar. Their accusations lasted for 45 minutes before Petraeus had a chance to speak.
Military Objectives: Petraeus reports that U.S. troops have met its military objectives "in large measure".
Troop Withdrawals: Petraeus envisions the withdrawal of roughly 30,000 troops by next summer. A small contingent of Marines will be coming home later this month, beginning the process. The key thing to understand is that they're coming home due to our success on the ground, not political gamesmanship.
Being Bush's Mouthpiece: Petraeus took exception to that slanderous charge by the Democrats: "I wrote this testimony myself. It has not been cleared by nor shared with anyone in the Pentagon, the White House or the Congress."
Violence Levels: Uneven, but overall much lower; the last two weeks were the lowest since June 2006.
Iraqis Stepping Up: This is happening, slowly but surely.
Idiot Protestors: Several protesters were forcibly removed, one of them being Cindy Sheehan.

Regarding political progress in the Iraqi government, I heard on the radio today that an agreement on oil revenues is just about inked (I'll post that as soon as I find it). That would be a critical success on the political front, as the oil revenue is one of the biggest political barriers to a unified Iraq.

Regarding the mindset of the Democrats on this issue, Powerline hits the nail on the head with their post titled 'My Mind Is Made Up, Don't Confuse Me With the Facts'. How true, as evidenced by Joe Biden's statements on Meet the Press:

President Bush's war strategy is failing and the top military commander in Iraq is "dead flat wrong"...[t]he reality is that although there's been some mild security progress, there is in fact no security in Baghdad or Anbar province where I was dealing with the most serious problem, sectarian violence."

They also link to a story indicating that one of the top leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Mohammad al-Afri, has been killed by an air strike near Mosul.

Quite a contradiction, huh?

Click here for a list of General Petraeus' decorations. He's a true war hero.

More updates as they become available. It's a full court press of the hypocrisy and defeatism of the Democrats today. Shameful.

There's my two cents.