Petraeus admits 1 in 4 chance of surge success

Via Talking Points Memo we discover that U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, while defended his rapidly changing stance on the Iraq war in a meeting with Republicans, dropped this bombshell on the Iraq surge supporters. He says any guarantee that it would really work in a city of nearly 7 million people would require in the neighborhood of 250,000 troops, not the paltry 20,000+ we have the ability to send. Furthermore, and even more disturbing, he admits he recently spoke to the architect of the surge strategy, Gen. David Petraeus, who admitted the surge only has a 25% chance of working in its present form.

I'd say such lousy odds present an indecent gamble with our soldier's lives and I have to wonder how anyone who is unwilling to go over themselves to shoulder this mission can blithely call for unquestioning support of sending our men into such an outrageously risky venture. How do these people sleep at night? I have a feeling if it wasn't for Ambien, they wouldn't be able to drown out the roar of their conscience -- assuming they have one.