ALL WE ARE SAYYYYING, IS GIVE SURGE A CHANCE . . .

All this time, since the grand notion of Surginess took the airwaves by storm, and the President's great new idea for Iraq became the direction, all through the debates in the newly-but-barely Democratic-controlled Congress, we've continually heard "give it some time to work," or "wait til the progress report IN SEPTEMBER!!. For months, September's report has been high up in the talking points, along with "progress" - of course that one's been there almost since the day after Mission Accomplished on the Lincoln. It all became clear though, as reported in yesterday's Los Angeles Times how this White House can be so sure that September's report "From General Petraeus" will be a praising of the surge:

Administration and military officials acknowledge that the September report will not show any significant progress on the political benchmarks laid out by Congress. How to deal in the report with the lack of national reconciliation between Iraq's warring sects has created some tension within the White House.

Despite Bush's repeated statements that the report will reflect evaluations by Petraeus and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, administration officials said it would actually be written by the White House, with inputs from officials throughout the government.

And though Petraeus and Crocker will present their recommendations on Capitol Hill, legislation passed by Congress leaves it to the president to decide how to interpret the report's data.

What a complete farce - except for all the casualties.