General Petraeus: The Last Fighting Season

Global Post:

KABUL -- The snows of the Hindu Kush have melted and the poppy harvest is winding down.

That means Afghanistan's "fighting season" is about to begin.

The fighting, of course, never really stops, it just intensifies this time of year as Taliban fighters who pulled back to wait out the winter in safe havens inside Pakistan are now returning to Afghanistan.

Read the whole story: Global Post

Comments

[Dredd]

04:44 PM on 04/28/2011

The virgin momcom is replicating ...

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2011/01/virgin-momcom.html

[Erewhon7]

11:59 AM on 04/28/2011

Re-arranging the deck chairs on the deck of a sinking administration.

[Erewhon7]

11:47 AM on 04/28/2011

Very good military leader, largely responsible for winning Iraqi war.
Despite being hampered with two militarily incompetent U.S. Presidents in a row..

[mataylor16]

01:35 PM on 04/28/2011

Usually the distinction of winning implies there is an opposed party who can as easily be identified as the loser. I dont know if thats the case in Iraq.

[beartrack]

01:58 PM on 04/28/2011

"Winning Iraqi war" ???? You call that disaster a win ?

[CDRUSNret]

03:27 PM on 04/28/2011

What was better...before of after Petraeus took over?

[Erewhon7]

04:37 PM on 04/28/2011

There's absolutely no question that Iraqi war was won. The cost was too high. But the war was won. And Ptereius was instrument in winning it. And many liberals right here, on this website, ignorantly called him Betrayus because he made a proposal that saved U.S. geo -political position. for years to come.

[Adrian Rodriguez21]

10:58 AM on 04/28/2011

Afghanistan is the worlds largest producer of heroin, thanks general

[CDRUSNret]

11:46 AM on 04/28/2011

and it wasn't BEFORE he got there??

[Okieborn]

09:46 AM on 04/28/2011

Petraeus running the CIA huh, a comparible would be donald quack quack trump as President !

[CDRUSNret]

10:12 AM on 04/28/2011

What could possibly make you think he's not capable? He has much better bona fides than Panetta ever had.

[mtwashingtonmike]

10:24 AM on 04/28/2011

You should be 1/10th as accomplished as David Petraeus. Few are more qualified for the job. You do not get 4 stars without knowing how to play the game militarily and politically

[imusintheevening]

10:59 AM on 04/28/2011

"playing the game militarily and politically" is the exact problem of the CIA

[Dredd]

09:16 AM on 04/28/2011

One traditionally civilian organ of government after another is being run by generals. When is the commander in chief going to start wearing khaki camouflage?

http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2011/04/ways-of-bernays.html

[CDRUSNret]

09:41 AM on 04/28/2011

There's nothing in your link that refers to the military taking over civilian "organs". To what do you refer?

[Dredd]

10:28 AM on 04/28/2011

Organs of government that are not military should be kept strictly civilian (CIA, FBI, Homeland Security, etc.).

[Paul]

09:07 AM on 04/28/2011

The CIA is a relic of the Cold War and should be shut down.

[bradenton]

08:36 AM on 04/28/2011

Another bad decision by Obama. Petraeus manipulated the war for the military industrial complex to the tune of billions of dollars and many thousands of lives. Now he gets another shot at our information industrial complex. No wonder America is going down the toilet.

[WasteNJ]

08:02 AM on 04/28/2011

The professional spy and the professional soldier are two different types of people, why not tap an intelligence person to head the agency? Because of the potential for infighting like the conflict between Tenet's CIA and Rumsfeld's Pentagon back in 01? Seems smarter to have independent views, but hey they are all working for the benefit of the MIC in the end.

[CDRUSNret]

10:13 AM on 04/28/2011

What was Panetta's intel background??

[WasteNJ]

01:51 PM on 04/28/2011

I'm not referring to any specific head of the CIA per se, I am talking about the idea of putting an intel person at the top of the CIA vs putting a military person in charge. Preferably, a former field operative.
I'd say the same thing about the Pentagon, a career military officer should be tapped for that job as well. I know this may not be the norm but I wonder why.

[jaschrod]

07:56 AM on 04/28/2011

What a country, pathetic at the very least.

[GreedIsGood]

08:22 AM on 04/28/2011

Serious question: why don't you leave?

[CDRUSNret]

03:28 PM on 04/28/2011

You're free to leave...assuming you are already here.

[frank day]

07:44 AM on 04/28/2011

No mention of the role of Pakistan in all of this.
Supplies and men have to come in from somewhere.
Close down their bases in Pakistan and things will be different.
I'm impressed by the strategy. I honestly hope it is succesful and that we can start "thinning"
out our troops as we hand off the the Afghani's themselves.
Ultimately, the outcome depends on whether the Afghanistan nation are willing to build a nation for themselves.

[Walter H]

07:19 AM on 04/28/2011

On the up side, heroin prices are down.

[Walter H]

07:18 AM on 04/28/2011

"Fighting Season". There it is. Like Football Season or Hockey Season. We have forgotten everything we have ever learned. I'd weep openly, but the fighting season types would laugh and kick sand in my face.

[mataylor16]

08:43 AM on 04/28/2011

We'll re-learn it in the end, the hard way.

[Walter H]

09:43 AM on 04/28/2011

Again and again.

[liberalandloveit]

10:03 AM on 04/28/2011

Actually, no. We won't. If we were ever going to learn anything, we wouldn't be in Afghanistan right now. Humans as a species are selfish, stupid and self-destructive. The smoking gun at the end of the story will be a mushroom cloud. Or, a completely fouled, toxic environment unable to sustain human life. And we will have only ourselves to blame. Have a nice day!

[trespanieli]

07:14 AM on 04/28/2011

So the CIA director goes to the Pentagon and a general goes to the CIA. Seems to me the lines between military and intelligence are blurring. Does this mean our next war to bring democracy to X will be covert and we taxpayers will not know about it until it's over or ever know how much was spent?

[BPCentrisAmerican]

07:52 AM on 04/28/2011

Good point, it seems counter intuitive, but General Petraeus has to be out of uniform for a specific period of time to qualify as Secretary of Defense.

[WasteNJ]

08:03 AM on 04/28/2011

It's already happening.

[one tequila two tequila]

06:29 AM on 04/28/2011

Seems only yesterday GEobama was telling America this man was the 2ed coming of Christ
Oops...! he blew it...!.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

07:54 AM on 04/28/2011

You mean General Petraeus, isn't he the right's hero? I guess not, he was the right's hero until he worked for Obama.

[CDRUSNret]

09:43 AM on 04/28/2011

We still love him...care to provide a list of prominent Repubs who have flipped? Seems to me Obama realized we were right about the good General all along.