Betraying Petraeus

The moveon.org NYT ad was a mistake and beneath them. "Cutesy," took precedence over intelligence and the organization needs to reevaluate its leadership, if not its mission in life.

The same thought had occured to me, but I decided that the play on words didn't fit the situation.

The Democrats in Congress, not Bush, did much to "politicalize" Petraeus. Remember that it was them, not Bush, who insisted Petraeus return and "report" to Congress on the Surge, at the time of his Senate confirmation. If he slanted his report to favor his boss, it was to be expected. Beyond that, what General, in any Army anywhere, is going to admit failure? Too much expectation had been placed in him to expect an "objective and unbiased report."

I listened to segments of the Petraeus testimony and it brought back memories of Vietnam. In the drawn out end of that war, how often did we hear military pleas for "just a little more time and a few more troops?" Petraeus' testimony struck me as basically honest, while emphasising the little positive news he could present.

While I favor the Democratic position (s) on Iraq more than the President's, there are plenty of shabby politicians on both sides of the aisle. Asking the General whether he felt the Surge had made the United States more secure was a nonesense political question, to a field general whose main concern is the day-to-day tactical situation on the ground in Iraq, and Petraeus answered it correctly and honestly with, "I don't know."

Overall, the military has done what I think possible with the little they have. In fact, I am now beginning to wonder if the "Surge" wasn't more to preserve the status quo in Iraq than it was to improve stability. The recent ban on all U.S. civilian travel outside of the Green Zone during the suspension of Blackwater activities tells me that things are worse than we imagine, not better.

Petraeus is not the villian of this piece; the President is. Many of our Iraqi errors may be traced to the underlying philosophy of this Administration...namely that while there is an Axis of Evil abroad, the focus of Evil at home is the United States Government. Much of the corruption and inefficiency of our present Government comes not from Government itself, but from the absurd lengths this Administration has gone to, to privatize as much as possible.