The Colin Powelling of Petraeus
When Army Chief of Staff Eric Shinseki told Congress before the invasion in 2003 that several hundred thousand troops would be needed to pacify Iraq, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz ridiculed him.
To justify the war, the Administration pushed Gen. Colin Powell, by then Secretary of State, into a UN presentation from which he tried, not altogether successfully, to remove Scooter Libby’s “garbage†supplied by Ahmad Chalabi.
Cheney didn’t even try to hide the fact that he and Bush were using Powell’s credibility to sell the war. Poking him in the chest, the Vice President told Powell, “You’ve got high poll ratings, you can afford to lose a few points.”
Last week, when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Peter Pace faced Senate opposition for being too compliant, the Bushies dropped him with a thud. Loyalty works only one way with them.
Now it’s Petraeus’ turn. Everything in his past suggests that he is an honest, capable man, which of course is why they are using him to front for the Surge. As a good soldier, he may want to look at what happened to Powell, Shinseki, Pace et al when he makes his crucial report to Congress at the end of summer.
He is sworn to serve the American people, not the parody of a Commander-in-Chief.
Cross posted from my blog
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11 Responses to “The Colin Powelling of Petraeus”
Are you suggesting that Petraeus will be blowing sunshine? He’s not that kind of soldier. He’ll tell the truth from his perspective, not the Administrations.
I accept cyncism is the coin of the realm for bloggers, but I second entropy. Until someone documents how he has lied, I’m not ready to assume he will. (Past performance is the best indicator of future performance.)
Secondly, the landscape has changed. While the anti-Bush/Cheney folks fight every day to keep their foils alive and well, all you need to do is to read Redstate, Townhall, et al for a few days to realize there is no longer a pro-Bush/Cheney faction out there. (Don’t confuse respect for the Office of President/CIC as support for George Bush/Dick Cheney.)
I don’t see how Petraeus would be motivated to lie to remain the general of a failed mission (if that is how he sees it come September), when the man who would be the beneficiary of that lie would hardly be capable of furthering his career.
I’m worried about Petraeus that he might be getting senior officeritis – the desire to continue to play with the “big boys”. To that end I offer something I posted elsewhere:
I read in the June 13th issue of USA Today Gen Petraeus’s comment:
“When Gen. David Petraeus drives through the streets of Iraq’s capital, he sees “astonishing signs of normalcy†in half, perhaps two-thirds of Baghdad.
“I’m talking about professional soccer leagues with real grass field stadiums, several amusement parks — big ones, markets that are very vibrant,†says Petraeus, commander of the roughly 150,000 U.S. troops in Iraq. The scenes provide a sign that the new strategy in Iraq is working, although many problems remain, he told USA TODAY in an interview Wednesdayâ€
He seems to be prejudging the surge and that has put doubts in my mind. I remember reading is some newspaper (can’t remember which one) a reporter stationed in Baghdad asking where the Hell are these grass soccer stadiums and big amusement parks? He sure hasn’t seen anything like that. There are two small amusement parks he knows of, both with old broken down rides that are dusty and dirty with no electricity to run the rides or much else.
jdledell,
Well, first of all, the entire city of Baghdad is not some kind of war zone with street-to-street fighting. Most of the conflict takes place at borders and along main streets – places where tribe and sect intermix and battle for supremacy. Many parts of Baghdad are firmly ensconced in areas that don’t see much violence – they are the sleepy neighborhoods that few hear about.
The “reporter” from “some newspaper” is probably like 99% of reporters “stationed” in Baghdad and spends all or most of his/her time in the Green Zone, only sallying forth when embedded with US troops. It just so happens that US troops don’t spend time in the aforementioned sleepy neighborhoods in Iraq. Similarly, the Iraqi locals used as stringers for these reporters spend the bulk of their time reporting the news of the conflict and not in the back alleys of Baghdad.
And just to be clear, this is not a criticism but is a simple fact of life in Iraq and the news business. As a comparison, read about the violent neighborhoods in your own city or town in the local paper. The impression is often that these areas are filled with and run by violence even though violence is actually relatively rare. When nothing is happening, there is nothing to report – similarly, when there is nothing happening in parts of Baghdad, there is nothing to report there.
Oh, and WRT the Baghdad markets, one thing Petreaus has done is wall them off so that no car-bombs can enter and security at the perimeter is tight to prevent suicide bombers from entering. So many of the Baghdad markets are islands of relative peace and stability.
Entropy Enough of the Repugs/Laura Ingrams meme about reporters. I guess Lara Logan and Pepe Escobar just sipped lattes and copied stringers work(not).
I agree with your assessment of Powell and Pace (actually Gen. Franks belongs in that category as well). But, I think we should reserve judgement on Petraeus. He seems to be doing as well as he can under the circumstances, and I don’t think its fair to judge him on the basis of one or two comments. His efforts working with the American forces seem to be producing results, but the Iraqi government and military are still inept and unfocussed.
Let’s see what he says in September.
I think it’s being suggested here that Petraeus should call it as he sees it.
There isn’t going to be any advantage to doing otherwise. He might end up being dumped like Shinseki–or being dumped like Pace.
And the fate of Powell’s reputation is also instructive.
Rudi,
I was pretty careful to make sure I wasn’t going down that route. This is about blaming the so-called liberal media bias for ignoring the “good news.” It’s a realization that reporters, by and large, are ambulance chasers – the same is true here as it is over there. And stating that reporters are confined to the green zone without US escort only illustrates the danger and lack of security in Baghdad. That said, there is not fighting on every block, in every neighborhood and in every street. There are places in Baghdad that are basically peaceful. That’s simply a statement of fact. Reporters in Iraq don’t go to a neighborhood and write a story about about the lack of violence there for the same reason reporters don’t go to my neighborhood here in Texas and write a story. That’s not some right-wing conspiracy, it’s reality and the way things work!
[...] The Colin Powelling of Petraeus [...]
Entropy – Are you aware of Steven Vincent’s “In the Red Zone”. He was murdered in Southern Iraq while we were told it’s safe and quiet there. Parts of Europe went unscathed during WWII, so what. Give me Lara Logan over McClown and Lieberman. What is the price for Baghdada rugs today?