Petraeus thought

The commanding general in Iraq just spent two days before Congress spewing propaganda about a failed war. Seems like a good time to recall what another commanding general said before Congress in November of 1967: he said said "we have got our opponents almost on the ropes," that "the end begins to come into view," that there was "light at the end of the tunnel."

It worked, at least for its intended purpose: public relations.

Time reported on November 17, "so wide-ranging is Allied surveillance...that few safe spots remain to the Communists in South Vietnam," then promised on November 24: "slow but promisingly tangible progress.... Viet Cong recruitment, running last year at a rate of some 7,500 per month, has now dropped to 3,500," then on December 8, "In recent weeks in South Viet Nam, Communist troops have been regularly beaten back, hurled from prepared positions, put to flight and slaughtered in huge numbers," then on January 12: "Administration officials, long convinced that there is no realistic hope of peace negotiations until after the 1968 elections--if then--were admitting last week that they may have been too pessimistic."

That immediately preceded the enemy's Tet Offensive, which proved every utterance of General William Westmoreland false. Why should we trust them any more now?