In mid-September General David Petraeus’s much-heralded assessment of the Iraq war is due. But how much faith should we put in any handpicked Bush appointee? Little, if history is any guide. Examples of Bush appointees being out of touch with reality are many. These are just a few:

. Paul Wolfowitz predicted that Iraqis would greet U.S. troops as liberators and that Iraq’s oil profits would pay for reconstruction.

. Paul Bremmer, U.S.-appointed governor of Iraq, dissolved the Iraqi army and ministry of information, creating a horde of 400,000 discontented, unemployed potential insurgents.

. Michael D. Brown, director of FEMA, fiddled while New Orleans drowned. “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job,” Bush gushed.

. Scooter Libby, Cheney’s chief of staff, pressured the CIA to confirm, erroneously, that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

. Donald Rumsfeld predicted that the Iraq war would be brief.

. Alberto Gonzales proved to be a Bush crony whose loyalty was not to the Constitution but to the White House.

With the credibility of the Bush regime in tatters and the “decider” himself only interested in hearing happy news, we should take Petraeus’ pronouncements with many grains of salt. As last November’s election and current polls show, Americans already know the score: It’s time to withdraw our troops from a religion-fueled civil war where “victory” is impossible.

Gene Clifford

Southwest Harbor