Out of Control General
by digby
Andrew Sullivan is worried about The Man Called Petraeus:
Bryan Curtis’s excellent review of Woodward’s book is disturbing in its portrayal of how out of control David Petraeus is getting:
[Woodward] demonstrates convincingly that the men in uniform—that would be David Petraeus, Stanley McChrystal, and Mike Mullen, along with Bob Gates—dangled very few battle plans in front of Obama, and used bureaucratic jujitsu to make sure he didn’t see others. For example, Obama never had a fully fleshed-out proposal for sending fewer than 30,000 new troops to Afghanistan. And even the final proposal he crafted himself, lowering the military’s demands a tad. As Petraeus says, after being informed of a slight from Pennsylvania Avenue, “They’re fucking with the wrong guy.”
He goes on to point out that the canonization of the military has morphed itself into a virtual veto power by the brass over civilian rule. This is true. But that probably wouldn’t have happened if the entire political establishment hadn’t started rending their garments at the tiniest criticism of the military and restrained themselves from treating Petraeus himself like a conquering God. He’s now an untouchable — and Obama brought him into Afghanistan after the McChrystal mess, virtually guaranteeing that he would be Petraeus’ bitch. If Petraeus says we’re staying, we’re staying. They won’t be fucking with that guy.
The question still remains about his political ambitions. He may turn out to be like Colin Powell a retired General with his own army, a thorn in the side of the civilian leadership as long as he wants to be. Or he could run for president.
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