General Petraeus says we’ll be in Iraq for years. John Edwards fired back this morning:

“General Petraeus’ comments are just the latest example of the Bush Administration’s disconnect from the reality on the ground. In order to get the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their country, we must show them that we are serious about leaving, and the best way to do that is to actually start leaving. Instead of talking about keeping our troops in Iraq for another decade, the Administration should begin bringing our troops home to the hero’s welcome they deserve.

I’m not entirely sure how this fits into the residual forces debate but Edwards does seem to be at least playing footsie with the idea of differentiating himself on this issue.

This really creeps me out.

Jessica Valenti notes in particular “the creepy pseudo-incestuous dad” and “the girls offering themselves ‘as a priceless gift’ in the purity pledge” as particular highlights. Personally, my favorite was a part where someone suggested that “purity” was the way to go because if you get involved in sex and dating and so forth there’s a risk of broken hearts. Tennyson sheds a tear.

My recollection is that, for better or for worse, studies indicate that this sort of thing doesn’t actually result in the women who make the “purity” pledges actually saving it for marriage.

That surge architect Fred Kagan thinks the surge’s failure to deliver results merely proves the need to take more time with the surge is unsurprising. The end of the article, however, is striking. Kagan, according to Time‘s Michael Duffy, “fears a significant increase in Iranian support for those fighting U.S. forces. Finally, he noted that the shaky government of Nouri al-Maliki could just implode.”

While that might not end the cause of progress in Iraq, Kagan said, it could lead to something worse for those who believed a surge would lead to a stabilization of Iraq: a breakdown in political support for the war effort in Washington.

In other words, according to Kagan even the total collapse of the Iraqi government wouldn’t, in his mind, demonstrate that the war had failed. Even under those circumstances he’s going to stick to the stab in the back story that the only problem is the collapse of political support for the war here in DC.