I somewhat admire General David Petraeus - the chief of the US army in Iraq - who was handed over a thankless and tough task in the crisis-ridden West Asian country…a crisis which many believe was a direct creation of his commander-in-chief sitting in the White House.

On his recent visit to Middle East President George W. Bush talked of ‘hope and victory’; while General David Petraeus gave his usual sober/guarded answer: “I am neither optimistic, nor pessimistic…I am realistic.”

So who should one believe? “There is no doubt in my mind that we will succeed,” President Bush said, adding that when the history of the early 21st century is written, “the final page will say: Victory was achieved by the United States of America for the good of the world.” What victory? Over the graves of innocent civilians and soldiers? And, incidentally, what does “good of the world” mean?

The Los Angeles Times report adds: “(US) Administration officials have spoken for several weeks about their goal of reducing the deployment by five brigades by July, from a high of 20. That would bring the number of U.S. troops in Iraq below 140,000, from 158,000 at the end of December. There were about 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq a year ago when the surge was announced.

“The meeting with Petraeus and (Ambassador) Crocker provided the president an in-person update ahead of their March report to Congress on conditions in Iraq. The general (Petraeus) later told reporters he was seeing ‘mixed signs’ about conditions in Iraq.”

The NYT has this story…pl click here…

Here we get yet another typical glimpse of Bush - the politician, and Petraeus - the professional soldier. If a soldier begins talking through his hat then his days would be numbered. Although I opposed the US occupation of Iraq, I would tend to agree with General Petraeus.

The Iraq mess is not of his making nor can he achieve a miracle on his own. But Petraeus is now familiar with the ground realities. The US troops can withdraw only when there is an international intervention strategy to save Iraq from another bloodbath. And the time begins now!!!

When Saddam Hussein was about to be hanged I had argued in this blog that the US administration should work out some sort of an agreement with the Iraqi leader, as the history of Iraq has shown that without a powerful leader the country gets dangerously divided and the highly sensitive region destabilised.

But greed, avarice, ego and ignorace took the front seat…and the world witnessed the unfolding of a horrible scenario - the unending bloodbath resulting in tragic killing of Iraqi civilians and the US soldiers.

Ironically, Bush now proudly mentions that Iraq would rehabilitate Saddam Hussein’s Baathist loyalist. “US President George W Bush has praised a new law in Iraq that will allow former members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath party to return to public life,” reports the BBC.

But if you recall Bush had thundered on November 1, 2003 in a radio address to the nation “that terrorists and Saddam Hussein’s Baathist loyalists will not weaken the country’s will, and the United States will not leave Iraq until the job we set out to do is done.”

To get a taste of more Bush flipflops please click here…

Now let’s jog our memory. “Some of the first steps the American occupation authority took in 2003 are blamed by critics for igniting the Sunni-led insurgency: disbanding the Iraqi Army and purging members of the former ruling Baath Party from government and public life.

“Yet, the conflict between the Sunni Arabs and the Shiites is at its heart a deeply existential one: rarely since the Sunni-Shiite sectarian split in the 7th century have Shiite Arabs ever held any significant power, and many Sunni Arabs today regard the rise of the Iraqi Shiites as an upheaval of the proper Islamic order. Eighty to 90 percent of the world’s Muslims are estimated to be Sunnis; demography and history have always favored the Sunnis.”

More here…

As a mad bull raging through a street, the Bush administration dismantled the strong edifice/infrastructure in Iraq in the field of administration/education/health/law-and-order,etc, which was created during nearly three decades, and primarily manned by Saddam Hussein’s Baathist Party and Sunnis. A well-organised/run nation was thrown into a chaos and its leader hanged.

Now that the mad bull is panting and exhausted it wants the same so-called “rogue” Baathists to come back and restore sanity!!! Wow….some leadership this!!! This great leader is now travelling in the Middle East urging leaders/nations to embrace “democracy”. But he has no face/time to meet the ordinary people in these places whose lives he has devastated.

I end this silly/angry diatribe of mine by drawing your attention to General Petraeus’ interview. Does he get a chance to read books caught up as he is in a deadly war? “I read Rick Atkinson’s second book in his trilogy on World War II, which is terrific. He’s a good buddy. He did the [trip] to Baghdad in the back of my Humvee. He learned about his second or third Pulitzer while we were out in a dust storm. I read ‘April 1865,’ and it’s very good. And I read ‘Grant Takes Command,’ which was really quite instructive.” More here…

(Photo of General David Petraeus above: Courtesy Spencer Platt / Getty Images)

To read my earlier posts (April 2007) on Gen. Petraeus please click here…

And here….