Tom Murphy
RedwoodAge.com

After begging the American public to withhold its opinion on the Iraq war until after Gen. David Petraeus makes his report in September, the White House said Thursday it plans to write the report itself.

Petraeus, the top US military commander in Iraq, will testify before Congress in private and public before the report is issued, but the Bush administration will then prepare the document that will evaluate whether the Bush administration strategy in Iraq is working. Similarly, Ambassador Ryan Crocker will testify before the report comes out.

The stunning annoucement was first reported by the Washington Post on Thursday and later confirmed by the White House. The development has already set off a new round of complaints that Bush is once again filtering reports from experts in a way that supports administration positions.

"Americans deserve an even-handed assessment of conditions in Iraq. Sadly, we will only receive a snapshot from the same people who told us the mission was accomplished and the insurgency was in its last throes," House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel told the Post.

Many Republicans have also been waiting for an objective report from the military before deciding whether to extend funding for the unpopular war or demand a timetable for withdrawal.

Petraeus himself talked this week about scaling down US troop strength in Iraq, but cautioned about doing it too soon.

The latest revelation comes amid a rising wave of violence in Iraq that undermines administration claims that the troop surge announced by Bush in January is showing progress. In the past, the military has managed to suppress anti-US forces in Iraq temporarily only to seem them surface in another area.

This week's bombing in a Kurdish villages in Northern Iraq - an area where US troops are present - showed the inability of American soldiers to quell the rampant violence. More than 400 people are believed to have died in that attack, which stemmed from long-running hatred among religious factions.

A bombing in Baghdad on Thursday showed the rebels have strength even in the Iraqi capital, where the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is having difficulty bringing Sunni groups into the Shitte-led ruling coalition.

Moreover, the civilian population is clearly suffering. One in three Iraqis, some 8 million people, live in crisis, and one in six has become a refugee as a result of the war, according to recent reports from international peace groups and UN agencies.

The suicide rate among American soldiers is now higher than at any time since the Vietnam war, another indication that extended tours of duty and the dreariness of the Iraqi conflict is taking a toll on American troops. More than 3,600 American soldiers have been killed in the war along with tens of thousands of Iraqis.

More than two-thirds of the American public is against the war, and there are nearly enough votes in the Senate - including several Republicans - to block a presidential veto of an antiwar measure.