Like the song, "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" from the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut (read about it here), the Congressional GOP, and more-than-a-few Democrats, have outright deferred to General Petraeus concerning "progress" on "benchmarks." They'll await the so-called benchmarks (probably as empty, meaningless and as costly to produce as that absurd color-coded terrorism warning code). And they'll completely defer to someone else their Constitutional duty. They have democracy upside down (again) and their convoluted understanding of congressional responsibility needs re-programming. Are they that obtuse? Or are they just quivering in their boots that someone somewhere won't like them if they do the right thing?
Could it be that these deferrals of judgment indicate a reluctance to take any responsibility for funding (with safe passage for the troops)decisions themselves? Are these the same responsibility and accountability folks? Or are they actually devoid of competence (yes, competence, the anti-buzzword of the week)?
Harry Reid stirred up a hornet's nest when he apparently called the outgoing Chair of the Joint Chiefs "incompetent" here I would argue that it's incompetent to defer to General Petraeus, or any other general. This is not any criticism of Petraeus. He does not have the Constitutional power to declare war (or continue it without Congressional re-authorization of funding). Only Congress does. (And Congress can de-fund it. They could begin bringing the troops home today, and do so safely, if they wished. Unfortunately, they do not. And the blame-game goes in circular fashion.
What Would General Petraeus do? It's not his to decide. Tell that to Congress and the ever-Unconstitutional Commander-in-Chief.