Sep 13 2007
Time For Another War-Hero President?
General George Washington, our 1st President and military hero of America’s War of Independence. General Ulysses S Grant, war hero from the civil war and the 18th President. President Eisenhower, 34th President and General of the Allied Forces in World War II. Other Presidents known for their military experience above all else were Teddy Roosevelt, John Kennedy – maybe even George Bush the elder. Is America ready to dump the professional politicians and give a military veteran of hgh stature (forget it Kerry, scratches on a boat in Vietnam do not count) and reknown? McCain does fall into this category for his sacrifice as a prisoner of war. But note the big names from history were the top generals – not just someone who served (again we have the exceptions I noted who just missed dying in combat).
This news about Gen Petraeus and his Presidential aspirations is actually something I thought about a while ago:
The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.
Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq’s Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.
“I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, ‘No, that would be too soon’,” Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said
I would say it might actually be the right time, if things turn around. The idea hit me when I was wondering where would the country turn given the abysmal performance (and basic cowardice) of the current crop of Dem and GOP leaders. The Dems want to run from al-Qaeda and the GOP purity war is making them run from each other. The logical choice for America is to look outside DC to the top leaders who have performed well beyond expectations (this knocks out General Wesly Clark who is best know for ordering an attack on Russians in the Balkans, an order ignored by our allied EU commanders who knew better).
As I said, if his efforts to turn around Iraq succeed, could be a candidate worth looking at. He stands well above most candidates, except McCain and Giuliani (who was in a war zone and led amazingly well). Wishful thinking? I don’t even know the man’s political leanings – and probably don’t care at this time. One thing is for sure, we need better choices and ones who have seen our enemy up front and know what we are fighting. Which is why I tend to stick to Giuliani – he has the horror of al-Qaeda printed on his soul, and will take the proper action to make sure another 9-11 will not happen again.
Update: I like the General even more now that I know he is a maverick who broke down the cobwebs of precedent and ruffled the feathers of the old guard to get his plans into action.
In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus by members of the U.S. Congress during his testimony this week, Petraeus’s superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March, according to Pentagon sources familiar with reports of the meeting.
Fallon told Petraeus that he considered him to be “an ass-kissing little chickenshit” and added, “I hate people like that”, the sources say. That remark reportedly came after Petraeus began the meeting by making remarks that Fallon interpreted as trying to ingratiate himself with a superior.
That extraordinarily contentious start of Fallon’s mission to Baghdad led to more meetings marked by acute tension between the two commanders. Fallon went on develop his own alternative to Petraeus’s recommendation for continued high levels of U.S. troops in Iraq during the summer.
The enmity between the two commanders became public knowledge when the Washington Post reported Sep. 9 on intense conflict within the administration over Iraq. The story quoted a senior official as saying that referring to “bad relations” between them is “the understatement of the century”.
Fallon’s derision toward Petraeus reflected both the CENTCOM commander’s personal distaste for Petraeus’s style of operating and their fundamental policy differences over Iraq, according to the sources.
The policy context of Fallon’s extraordinarily abrasive treatment of his subordinate was Petraeus’s agreement in February to serve as front man for the George W. Bush administration’s effort to sell its policy of increasing U.S. troop strength in Iraq to Congress.
In a highly unusual political role for an officer who had not yet taken command of a war, Petraeus was installed in the office of Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, in early February just before the Senate debated Bush’s troop increase. According to a report in The Washington Post Feb. 7, senators were then approached on the floor and invited to go McConnell’s office to hear Petraeus make the case for the surge policy.
Petraeus fought long and hard to break the Pentagon mob of their losing strategy – and of course they all felt like he was making them look bad (which he was, but only because he would make progress). The man looks better the more you dig down.
Before you elevate Petraeus, as is your wont, to demi-god status, let\’s hear what his commanding officer in the field has to say about him:
In sharp contrast to the lionisation of Gen. David Petraeus this week, Petraeus\’s superior, Admiral William Fallon, chief of the Central Command (CENTCOM), derided Petraeus as a sycophant during their first meeting in Baghdad last March:
And speaking of sycophants, on 09/11/07 I accused Super-spy-chief Mike McConnell of lying about the capture of terrorists in Germany due to expanded FISA laws.
Surprise, surprise, Soothie was right and McConnell was just another lying sockpuppet:
Funny thing, I thought when you lied under oath it was called perjury. Instead, McConnell gets a Mulligan. Oh well, to quote Rosanna Rosannadanna: Never mind.
Sooth,
I posted on McConnell’s clarification – it was only required to assist the liberals in understanding what was going on. Everyone else understood, seems liberals needed another explanation – slower this time. Clearly you still don’t get it.
Why not just stop pretending you grasp this stuff and realize your ignorance is boundless when it comes to national security!
You guys can’t even read statutory language and understand what it means, so don’t lecture me on who understands the law.
As for Petraeus, I’ve already demonstrated he lied about mobile WMD labs in 2003 – and it got him bumped up from Maj General.
The deeper you look, the worse he looks, and Adm. Fallon has got Boy General pegged to a tee, and I quote: “an a**-kissing little chickens***!”
oh puh-lease, sooth, you’re the moron who doesn’t have a clue about “statutory language.” Whatever happened to your beloved Valerie Plame lawsuit? What happened to your wonderful “title 50” violations that were going to be grounds for impeachment? Whatever happened to any of the ridiculous claims you make? Nothing, since you simply take your cues from websites that tell you what to think and are incapable of a single independant thought of your own.
You’re a sad, sad little legal wannabe without a clue.
Sooth,
you are like a coakroach, constantly annoying, and a pain in the butt. Why don’t you just go away, to your side, and leave the informed discussions to the grown-ups.
You appear to be drawn to constant in-your-face dishonesty, and it really becomes a nuisance just to see your pseudonymn.
Take a chillpill, and go to huffington, dfu, or daily kos. They surely love you!
WWS_
With resepct to I. Lewis Libby, who called it in advance? In re Plame: it’s still under appeal. With resepct to TItle 50, if the US had had a REAL Attorney General, instead of an a**-kissing sycophant, the Title 50 violations would have been prosecute. By the way, WWS, the statute of limitations haven’t run on those yet, so a Democratic AG – Elliot Sptizer perhaps – wishes to pursue the Bush criminals, it could easily happen.
As for calling Petraeus a “war-hero”- just what WAR are we talking about? Although he graduated in 1974 — he didn’t see ANY military combat until 2003, and you couldn’t really call what he’s doing in Iraq “combat”. He’s not packing. In his first three decades of dedicated military service, he fearlessly protected American interests in:
• Vicenza, Italy
• Princeton University, New Jersey
• Georgetown, D.C.
• Fort Stewart, Georgia
• Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
• Fort Campbell, Kentucky
• Fort Polk, Louisiana.
• Fort Bragg, North Carolina
It takes true genius to have managed to avoid serving in any armed conflicts in his first 29 years in the service. And it’s that kind of genius that we need in Iraq. Since he has 29 years experience of keeping HIMSELF out of harm’s way – who better to advise 160,000 American troops how to avoid getting killed?!
As for Petraeus, I’ve already demonstrated he lied about mobile WMD labs in 2003 – and it got him bumped up from Maj General.
SHUT UP WEASEL: I’ve already EMBARRASED YOU about LYING about Petraeus’ Biolabs statements; WALK AWAY NOW!
Or I’ll put your statements up there again, and show how you LIED, ONCE AGAIN!
Ah, Dale -= could you at least learn to spell E-M-B-A-R-R-A-S-S so you won’t be EMBARRASED [sic].
Your ATTEMPT at refuting my earlier assertion that Petraeus lied about a mobile weapons lab in May of 2003 fell flat on its face because you said Powell’s earlier statement was relevant.
Powell’s UN statement was a separate incident, as Petraeus noted the “mobile weapon lab” had been found the week before the statement in May.
You’re basically unable to marshall your thoughts into anything approaching coherent sentences. Why not enroll at some local junior college and take an introductory writing course. Seriously, it might help.
My god, you’re not just an idiot, but a complete freaking imbecile as well!
Un-freaking-believable!
I’ve kicked your worthless Anti-Ameican/Pro-Jihadi Leftist Nutbag ass all over this board, every time you post, and as is typical with you freaking Leftist Nutbags, you’re living in delusional LaLa-Land with the Teletubbies (the Purple one, if you know what I mean?)
I not only refuted your assertion about Petreus, I rammed it right down your throat, along with:
a) your bogus “facts” on US Casualties
b) slammed you on the Lembcke issue!
c hammered you on the traitor John Kerry, your hero, as you traitors like to hang out together!
d) and toasted you on Petraeus and the Biolabs!
What a TOOL!
And, as usual, you got nothing, you can’t refute anything, so you just move on to the next set of goal posts, and try pathetically again!
C’mon, tell us more stories about you drinking tea with Russian “advisors” in the Bekaa!
When I Crushed you on that, you quickly backtracked, and try to ask me to describe the interior of the Sheraton in Damascus; when I did that, and did it better than you could, you had to change subjects, AGAIN!
What a MORON!
Go ahead, do some more postings on the “Mujad” or whatever you called them; show us some more of your “Google-tise”!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!
Hey “Bootlicker”; there are those who CAN; like myself for instance; then there are those who dream, like YOU!
BWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!
How can soothie be that stupid? Oh I forget he is a leftie.
Sooth, Patreaus did not lie and if he was saying what you wanted to hear you would happily kiss his ass. Your greatest fear is that your own country will not be defeated. Dale is right, you are stupid.
BTW, if I remember correctly Zinni, that great Dem General made all the troops in Kuwait get shots for anthrax among other things back in 1998 when Clinton bombed Iraq. Why? Well because Saddam had all these weapons and weapons labs and all sorts of stuff and Zinni {who at the time considered Saddam our greatest threat} was just sure that Saddam was going to use wmd on our troops.
Was he lying or wrong?
And btw, how do you know those labs were not dual purpose?
You didn’t refute ANY Petraeus allegation except in your own considerably disturbed mind, jerk.
The “mobile weapons lab” that Petraeus alleged existed turned out not to be a mobile weapons lab.
He lied. He was rewarded. With stars.
Simple yet elegant.
And your recollection of the Damascus Sheraton was faulty. Describe if you can the smoked salmon from room service.
Libby filed his appeal. Either he will win his appeal or be pardoned.
Of course, Plame’s case is appealed but I doubt she won’t win her appeal.
Title 50 still won’t impeach Bush at all even if Elliot Spitzer wins the nomination. No, it won’t easily happen.
Before you elevate Petraeus, as is your wont, to demi-god status, let\’s hear what his commanding officer in the field has to say about him:
It must suck to be losing. But cheer up, there’s still time to get your 72 virgins. After Iraq the war will shift to another area. And when Al Quaeda dwindles down to a precious few maybe you will be taken away from your internet duties and be recruited as a suicide bomber.
Bootlicker: Ah, once again, you need to remove your head from your anus, as you suffer from rectal-craninial inversion syndrome (common in Traitor Leftist Nutbags such as yourself!)
I not only blew your Mobile Biolabs, and your falacious statements about Gen Petraeus out of the water, but in fact, if that is your definiton of a “lie”; that Gen Petraeus told the press that his troops found mobile Biolabs, BASED UPON CIA REPORTING FOR FIFTEEN YEARS!; that later turned out to be wrong; if you’re saying he “lied” because of that, then every single time you open your mouth, YOU LIE! Based upon that “definition”!
Well, actually, that’s true anyhow!
Sorry, my bad….
Additionally, McFly (YOO HOO, anybody home McBootlicker?); by your own admission, last time we posted on this tedious topic, my own description of the Damascus Sheraton, was MORE ACCURATE than YOUR OWN!
YOO HOO, anybody home, McTraitor?
Describe the “smoked salmon”?
Are you nothing but a Moron?
Are you pulling some type of asinine Leftist Racist joke or something?
Jews eat smoked salmon; I never have seen a smoked salmon in an Arab country!
I don’t even like smoked salmon, and can count on one one finger, the times I’ve eaten it in my life!
Why should I describe it Moron?, I NEVER HAD IT, neither in Damascus, or Cairo or Tunis or Tangiers or Khartoum or Larnaca or Ankara or Manama or Dubai or Sharjah or Abu Dhabi or Doha or Zakho!
What a freaking TOOL!
I was too happy chowing down with the DAO and Asst DAO on Kufta, Kebab, Hummas, Aish, Warqa Eineb, Tabouli, Fettoush, Shwarma, and thos Foul Sandwiches they sold in the Lobby of the Sheraton, etc; who the heck would go to Damascus for “smoked salmon”; what a complete and utter Clown you are!
Dale – you are a fool and an imbecile:
The Sheraton had great smoked salmon flown in from Scotland; they had butter from Denmark, Amstel beer and Glenlivet Single Malt scotch. Just because you ate crappy food doesn’t mean I did:
Every night while going over my task list for the next day I’d order smoked salmon from room service, which came with sliced purple onion, chopped hard-boiled eggs and capers. Yummy. My hotel bill the last time I stayed there was $47,000.00+.
As for your hero Petraeus, who has never seen combat except as a 2-star or better, he got his bronze star when