If you want a read on the level on which this debate is being argued. In this exchange, Gen. Petraeus gets asked why his numbers don’t square with the GAO numbers. He responds by saying, their numbers are our numbers. Same thing. And if they would have had our great August numbers they would have dropped their pessimistic analysis of the situation on the ground in Iraq.
But this is a nonsensical statement.
Petraeus’s numbers from August couldn’t have made a difference since the argument between him and the GAO is over methodology — who gets counted as a dead Iraqi and who doesn’t.
