But Walker said the GAO received different assessments of the levels of violence. The report, he noted, recommended that the administration reflect such divergence in its own reports. It was unclear whether sectarian attacks had dropped, he said, "since it is difficult to measure intentions and there are various measures of sectarian violence from different sources. . . . Some show increases, some show decreases, and some show inconsistent patterns."
Walker said the GAO consulted with the military until Thursday. "We asked for, but did not receive, the information through the end of August," he said. "But we obtained their views for where the situation was . . . as of August 30th."
It's true because the military says it's true. Why do you hate the troops?
And why does General Petraeus have so much time to spend with people like Tom Friedman?