Iraq Reports Reveal Security Weakness; Petraeus Prepares for Congress

JIM LEHRER:

And finally tonight, here comes Petraeus, and other stories of the week, as analyzed by Shields and Brooks, syndicated columnist Mark Shields, New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Mark, first, have a thought about the new bin Laden tape?

MARK SHIELDS, Syndicated Columnist:

I guess only after listening to Judy's discussion, two things hit me. One, there were no overt threats in it to the United States. And, two, it was quite self-indulgent, I thought, on his part, I mean, in that sense. It obviously was made rather recently, too.

JIM LEHRER:

Scary in any way?

DAVID BROOKS, Columnist, New York Times:

No, ludicrous. I mean, on one hand, he's a malevolent guy who killed 3,000 Americans. But you read this thing, and it's like he's been sitting around reading lefty blogs, and he's one of these childish people posting rants at the bottom the page, you know, Noam Chomsky and all this stuff.

You can't help read it and not laugh at it, occasionally, because it is just absurd. It's flying this way, and that way, weird conspiracy theories, and mortgages, global warming. He throws it all in there.

The one thing that leapt out — and Bruce Hoffman and the others mentioned this — was how Western it is. And a friend of mine, Reuel Gerecht, points out that there's this argument that Western ideas never permeated into the Arab world, but in fact it's all — I mean, a lot of the worst ideas from the West have permeated in, and he's picked up Noam Chomsky, and he's picked up some of the anti-globalization stuff. And that's what infuses this.

JIM LEHRER:

Do you expect it to have any impact at all on the American public or the American debate on Iraq coming with the Petraeus report, et cetera?

MARK SHIELDS:

No, I really don't.

JIM LEHRER:

OK.

OK. Speaking of the Petraeus report, why has this — does it deserve all of this "Here it comes" attention that it's getting?

MARK SHIELDS:

Well, yes, it's become a dramatic moment because, you know, the administration's response every time there's been questions raised or debate, "Well, wait until September, wait until the Petraeus report."

JIM LEHRER:

Now it's here.

MARK SHIELDS:

And now it's here, and it's one of several reports. I mean, we've had the GAO report this week. We had General Jim Jones on the show last night and his commission report. And we have the Petraeus report.

And I guess, obviously, in each one, Jim, there is something that both sides, all presidential candidates, can take something, "Hey, that proves my position." But what strikes me is, from what we learn of the Petraeus report so far, is the agreement that they have. I mean, they all agree that the…