General Betray-Us?

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Petraeus has been sent out by the administration to do the administration's job - that is selling the war to congress. That is not a general's job. That is a politician's job. That is the Whitehouse's job. If they send him out to the Senate they take advantage of the reputation the military has for objectivity and political neutrality.

That is the dirty trick. And it has worked. Today people don't really discuss the war but talk about success in Anbar, just as if the US could indeed win the war. It was as I predicted: When they now talk about the war, talk about the 'surge', even criticise the surge — they criticise Petraeus and by extension the troops! It was a trap in plain sight, as predictable as the right reaction: Move-On! Treason! Outrageous!

It's a great distraction. And it works. Bush talks about reducing troop numbers? Yay! Except that the troops to be withdrawn are are the end of their extended tours anyway. One only needs to calculate. A tour is iirc six months, extended by two months, the reinforcements for the surge roughly started in January, we're entering October soon, voila, there you have your 'withdrawal'. That, considering the strained personnel base, is about what goes. That also implies that for much longer the US cannot maintain the strength necessary for the surge, much less simultaneously and with any prospect of success fight another war in Afghanistan or, horrors, against Iran.

Petraeus and the administration ordering him deserve harsh criticism for doing that. They're using the military to play politics. It's no more hiding behind the moronic verse that criticising the president means undermining the war effort, and that being against the war is being against the troops. It's now literally hiding behind Petraeus. Disgusting.

 

I get the sense from some folks on the right, like Guliani, that one shouldn't criticize a man in uniform. That, simply because he's a four-star general, we should show him respect.

This coming from so-called conservatives is what bugs me. It seems to me that one of the fundamental qualities of a true conservative is a distrust of government. Just because someone wears a uniform or holds some position of authority doesn't mean we should bow and scrape to them. In fact it should be our duty to always question them and be skeptical of anything they say. Especially after the false information we were fed prior to the Iraq war. This bad info was coming from the DoD and the White House. Fool me once...

 

By Chandos

By The Great Snook

A political party is not a government agency. The members of a political party may be private citizens. In fact most members of a political party are private citizens. Some may be public figures; politicians (of course) movie/TV stars, public speakers.

Political parties have the right to express their opinions and I have the right to agree or disagree with them.

Having read the ad and Petraeus' statement I didn't find either one that upsetting. Mark me down for a moderate US citizen I guess although I lean left in somethings, moderate in a lot, and right in others.

My guess is that the Senate is trying to avoid a Vietnam type confrontation.