Gen. Casey is not a pessimist

Tom Ricks of the Washington Post covered the confirmation session in the Senate of Gen. Casey who has been nominated as Chief of Staff for the Army.

Amid all the gloom and doom from the Senators Casey said some pretty upbeat things.

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Casey pushed back hard, disputing gloomy assessments of the situation in Iraq and standing by his own relatively optimistic view. "I do not agree that we have a failed policy," he said. He also said he still expects Iraqi security forces to assume responsibility for keeping order across the country by the end of this year. McCain sharply reminded him that in 2004 he made a similar prediction about the end of 2005.

When Graham used the term "last chance" to characterize the Bush administration's plan to bring security to Baghdad by doubling the number of U.S. troops there and having some of them live in outposts across the city, Casey objected. "I don't think it is the absolute last chance, but it certainly is the best chance right now that we have," he said.

He also told skeptical committee members that "the situation in Iraq is winnable. It's very winnable."

He disagreed with some senators' assessment of the strained state of the Army. "From what I see in Iraq . . . the Army is far from broken," he said.

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When you consider that his toughest questions came from Graham and McCain who support the surge, you get an idea of how out of touch the Senate is with the military realities of Iraq.

Update: This story by Rowan Scarborough gives more details on Gen. Casey's upbeat assessment.

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He said he does not consider Iraq a failure because all but three of 18 provinces -- Baghdad, Anbar and Diyala -- experience relatively low levels of violence. He also said the Iraqi Security Force has taken control of some regions.

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The relative success of operations outside of Baghdad and Anbar is lost in the "if it bleeds, it leads" new cycle. I think the sectarian violence that has been generated since the bombing of the gold dome mosque while tragic is not a threat to the government. Neither the Sunni or the Shia militia are taking on government forces. They are both avoiding contact with government forces when possible.