Stop Attacking Petraeus!

Instead of belittling General David Petraeus and insulting him -- we should be showing him HUGE respect.

Look at his military biography.

Though he graduated in 1974 -- this four-star general didn't see ANY military combat until 2003! (He has commanded several mechanized and light infantry units though!)

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

Can you recall even a single attack on any of those places while General Petraeus was in command? No sir -- you cannot. No enemy even DARED to attack a location where David Petraeus was running the show!

Not that he doesn't understand being under fire and suffering traumatic injuries.

In 1991, he was shot in the chest! (Okay... okay... it was by a fellow American officer during a military exercise in Nashville. But aw shucks -- that's GOTTA hurt! So he can definitely "feel the pain" when his troops are shot and maimed.)

In 2000 he suffered a broken pelvis! (Okay... okay... it was when he screwed up a skydiving jump. And okay... okay... he was jumping as a civilian. But it was still an injury!)

Look -- 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?!

Not only that - but look at the BLING!

If he can wrangle all those ribbons and medals for himself by being in change of trucks and tanks in rural America - he MUST know what he's doing!

It must be very inspiring to the 160,000 troops under his command in Iraq.

And - even if a few thousand more die over the next few years - who better than General Petraeus to get them some posthumous bling? They can have their coffins lined with fancy ribbons! Which will be a great comfort to their families...

And the thousands more troops who will be maimed will at least have something colorful to cover up their more ugly looking wounds.

So here's to General David Petraeus. A general to die for...

Follow Martin Lewis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMartinLewis

Comments

[charon]

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who butters your bread, and Petraeus is no genius. I do suspect he has told Bush things privately about Iraq that he hasn't told the rest of us, to spare himself his master's wrath.

He is about as smart as a regional manager for Wal-Mart, but will probably retire to some cush war industry job where he can put his skills to use taking credit for the work of his engineers while blaming his mistakes on them.

[JoeKoz451]

Things that make you go "hummmmmm ...."

"President Petraeus? Iraqi Official Recalls the Day US General Revealed Ambition"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/091307A.shtml

[Woofer58]

Wow, what a rack of medals !! My Dad flew in WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam. He hasn't got nearly that many medals. I guess the Army has more medals than the Air Force.

[Doofus]

A lot, yes, but maybe less than you think.
There aren't any under his uniform lapel,
even though you might imagine there would be,
as perhaps you're supposed to.

[waiguoren]

Whatever became of the "War Czar," some general or admiral so named way back..oh, maybe 6 months ago or so?

Since the collective U.S. memory is about a nano-week, guess he's long forgotten.

Perhaps Bush will mention him in tonight's address.

[Doofus]

That would be LT GEN Doug Lute, who
suggested on Aug 10 that maybe a draft
would be necessary, only to repent soon after.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Lute

LT GEN=3*, GEN (e.g. Petraeus)=4*. Go figure.

[waiguoren]

AND: Major General **

LT. General ***

[Zenobius]

Our focus should probably be on something else. After all, even if we had Napoleon Bonaparte commanding in Iraq, the Iraq war would still be a pretty questionable venture.

We still don't know what we want, nor how to get it. The Iraqis don't seem to be able to agree among each other; except that most of them want us to leave. Counting the casualties we'd take if we started withdrawing tomorrow, we're looking at 4000 killed and 30,000 wounded, and the only results seems to have been to wreck Iraq and to increase the power and influence of Iran.

General Petraeus may or may not be a good selection for combat command; but the real problems described above have nothing to do with General Petraeus. Our failures are political and strategic, and belong with the President and the people who took us into this war, not some guy who might or might not have been the best guy to fight it.

That said, this post is funny, and I enjoyed reading it.

[Strick]

"Who would choose such a general?"

Yep, the Eisenhower comparison is pretty apt, though it's fairer to remind everyone that he also had Patton and Bradley running ground forces.

Patraeus graduated from the Point two years after US forces withdrew from Vietnam. Since most of the Vietnam era veterans have or are reaching retirement age (it's been 35 years since we ended combat there, remember?), the next generation is taking over. Not all of this new generation of leaders have direct combat experience since the Army has be largely idle outside Desert Storm during which most of it was still on peace time duty.

Patraeus is simply one of the first of the post Vietnam generals to get a major command. He proved his worth in his first tour in Iraq. Get over it.

[mrcontinental]

He proved his worth alright. The man is a weasel who cares only about advancement. None of his men respect or like him.

He's a Bush mouth piece pure and simple.

[JimR]

Martin Lewis? Or Martin Screw Us?

========MARTIN RESPONDS===========

Sorry - I can't accomodate your request. Neo-cons have already screwed themselves. And this fine nation...

==========­==========­==========­=

[BillZBubb]

But, the right wing nuts scream, "Petraeus wrote the book on counter-in­surgency!!­!". Of course, then he goes and supports a policy totally at odds with his "book".

Petraeus's boss, Admiral Fallon, sized him up about as accurately as possible: Petraeus is an ass kisser. If Bush suddenly stopped walking, Petraeus would have a smelly, brown nose.

[bethinCary]

Every man is responsible for his/her own actions.

For people to play partisan politics-it IS thier fault.
You can blame GW, but he had to have people who agreed to it or did so willingly----
people who knew the difference between right and wrong and still chose "wrong".

[Doofus]

Good catch, ML! (or is this more satire?)

Obviously, this guy is totally incompetent.

Let's get him right out of there, and then
the US troops can leave right after they've
discovered the leader's gone.

As you no doubt know, Dwight Eisenhower
had no combat experience either, but fortunately
he had combat geniuses like Montgomery around for support.

[charon]

Ike led the troops against the bonus army encampment in 1929 didn't he? Leading American forces against the veterans of the Great War, spraying them with tear gas and trampling them with horses no doubt did a lot to recommend him to his corporate pals who saw him as having great potential as a union strike buster.

[Doofus]

Apparently he was there, as an aide to Douglas
MacArthur who was the Army chief of staff. As
a staff officer, which he was under MacArthur
for many years, Ike did not command troops.

http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/quick_links/military/Early_Military_1916_1941.html

[ordinaryguy]

who would choose a general with no combat experience to oversee all of the "iraq war"? this is worse than vietnam.

[nooneatall]

Who would choose such a general? What would you expect from a decider with even less impressive military experience? Although service in the Texas Air Guard should merit some medal (the Chickenhawk Cross with daddy's deferment clusters, perhaps)?

[wondering]

Exactly so!

Leading up to (and during) his appearances before congress, every Senator, Congressman, (including dems critical of the war), and MSM reporter who mentioned his name would also mention how respected and wonderful Gen. P was - what a brilliant, no-nonsense, straight-shooter he was. And I kept asking, "What makes you say that? Who had heard of this guy prior to being assigned to his current post?" In fact, there was little combat experience and nothing to suggest he wasn't going to just parrot the party line.

Apparently, repeating an unsubstantiated rumor makes it true.