Conservative mag rips Petraeus

What will the pseudo-patriots say about this?

American Conservative magazine says Gen. David Petraeus is a "sycophant" and "a political general of the worst kind -- one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes."

The piece by Andrew J. Bacevich says Petraeus "has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly."

Now, we'll see if the right-wingers who got their undies in a bunch over MoveOn.org's famous anti-Petraeus ad in The New York Times have anything to say about this far worse slap at their hero.

Let's not expect much. So far, these wingnuts haven't raised any fuss about Rush Limbaugh's latest slander of U.S. troops.

UPDATE: John McCain and Mitt Romney have criticized Limbaugh for calling antiwar U.S. troops "phony soldiers."

Limbaugh: Lots of U.S. troops are '"phony"

Recovering drug addict and serial prevaricator Rush Limbaugh, the talk radio blowhard who tells America's dimwits what to think, says the thousands of U.S. troops who have indicated any misgivings about the war in Iraq are "phony soldiers."

One wonders if this slander of our men and women in uniform will engender the kind of umbrage among Republican conservatives occasioned by the recent MoveOn.org newspaper add questioning the veracity of Gen. David Petraeus.

Your "liberal" media (cont.)

Eric Boehlert analyzes the mainstream media's clownishly imcompetent handing of the controversy over the MoveOn.org advertisement dissing Gen. David Petraeus.

Petraeus for president?

The general reportedly has big political ambitions.

UPDATE: Newtie's got the itch, too.

UPDATE II: Petraeus won't likely get a vote from Admiral William Fallon, who considers him an "ass-kissing little chicken-shit."

Petraeus report not a big hit at the Pentagon

Those Americans who were favorably impressed this week by the rhetoric from Gen. David Petraeus need to know that not everybody at the Pentagon was buying it, as Newsweek reports:

NEWSWEEK has learned that a separate internal report being prepared by a Pentagon working group will “differ substantially” from Petraeus’s recommendations, according to an official who is privy to the ongoing discussions but would speak about them only on condition of anonymity. An early version of the report, which is currently being drafted and is expected to be completed by the beginning of next year, will “recommend a very rapid reduction in American forces: as much as two-thirds of the existing force very quickly, while keeping the remainder there.” The strategy will involve unwinding the still large U.S. presence in big forward operation bases and putting smaller teams in outposts. “There is interest at senior levels [of the Pentagon] in getting alternative views” to Petraeus, the official said. Among others, Centcom commander Admiral William Fallon is known to want to draw down faster than Petraeus.

John Arquilla, an intelligence and counterinsurgency expert at the Naval Postgraduate School, is even harsher in his assessment of Petraeus. “I think Colin Powell used dodgy information to get us into the war, and Petraeus is using dodgy information to keep us there,” he said. “His political talking points are all very clear: the continued references he made to the danger of Al Qaeda in Iraq, for example, even though it represents only somewhere between 2 and 5 percent of the total insurgency. The continued references to Iran, when in fact the Iranians have had a lot to do with stability in the Shiite portion of the country. And it's not at all clear why things are a little better now. Is it because there are more troops, or is it because we're negotiating with the insurgents and have moved to small operating outposts? On any given day we don't have more than 20,000 troops operating. The glacial pace of reductions beggars the imagination.” [...]

According to a former senior civilian official in the Coalition Provisional Authority, Petraeus is a “total performer.” This reporter observed Petraeus’s political skills up close while flying with him above the Iraqi city of Mosul in a Blackhawk helicopter in early 2004. Speaking through headphones over the loud whirring of the chopper engines, Petraeus pointed out to then-Iraq administrator L. Paul Bremer III how many satellite dishes had popped up on Iraqi homes during the general’s tenure as commander of the 101st Airborne Division. Citing the dishes as a sign of progress, he proposed that Bremer go national with Petraeus’s “Mosul’s most wanted” TV show, launched to get locals to call in with insurgent tips. And Petraeus called in a large press gaggle to observe training exercises at his local Iraqi military training academy. Later, back in Baghdad, Bremer shook his head and laughed indulgently. “He loves headlines,” Bremer said.

"Universal Soldier"

In anticipation of Gen. David Petraeus's report on Monday concerning the war in Iraq, let's take a few minutes to ponder the Buffy Sainte-Marie song "Universal Soldier," as rendered by Scottish folk-rocker Donovan:

Most folks skeptical of Petraeus report

Americans have been fed so many lies about the war in Iraq by the Bush administration that most of them suspect that next month's report on the success, or lack of it, of the recent surge will just be more of the same.

A CNN poll on the matter also shows that about half the public thinks the surge has not gone well , and 72 percent say the report from Gen. David Petraeus will not change their opinion of the war.

Bush aides have admitted that the report will be written not by Petraeus but by White House officials.

The surge? Oh, yeah. Coming right up!

Gee, I thought that big U.S. military surge in Iraq started months ago. It sure seems like it, doesn't it?

Well, silly me. Gen. David Petraeus said today that the surge hasn't even started yet.

And, gosh, according to Petraeus, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves if we think he's going to tell us in September about how the surge is going. He doesn't expect to have "anything definitive" that soon.

So, we can all just cool our jets, OK? Let's take a deep breath. After all, this war is only in its fifth year.