(AFP/David Furst)
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Thank you Jesus is a good term used by evangelicals and right wing Christians often. It is like saying, way to go, God bless America, Praise the Lord, Power in the Blood. Need I go on? This is how the arrival of the good General Petraeus in Washington is herald. For any half way decent military man or woman, who thinks, this is almost laughable.
Jim Lehrer on the PBS Newshour has asked the question several times with a bit of sarcasm in his voice, how has it come to this--one American general seemingly so portrayed as the Savior in Iraq. Well, I can tell you, it is the "nature of the beast."
Simply, General Petraeus is a four star general, his commander is the President. The Commander has fucked up in Iraq and the top general is like a handy tool to use as an excuse for how messed up the policies are.
ENTOURAGE
Anybody who has seen the HBO program, Entourage, will understand exactly what I mean. On the show, a celebrity is followed around by a few of his buddies. He trusts them. They do his bidding.
General Petraeus has his own entourage. He is a celebrity, not unlike the character on Entourage. In our celebrity worshiping culture, he is forever tagged.
REUTERS/Jason Reed
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The General Petraeus entourage consists of four American colonels (Col. Peter Mansoor, 47,
Col. H. R. McMaster, 45, Col. Michael Meese, 47,Lt. Col. Douglas A. Ollivant) all Iraq vets with Ph.D.s, along with a Rhodes Scholar wearing captain's rank. (I would have been more impressed if his entourage had a few Sergeants and Privates).
Petraeus also has a PhD from Princeton. Keep in mind that all of this fine education for the General and his entourage was paid for by you and me, the American taxpayer.
In a sense, the President is using General Petraeus and that is flat out wrong. Historially, it has probably happened more than we'd like to admit but it is still wrong.
The NY Times had this amazing picture of General Westmoreland briefing Congress in 1967 on what Wesmoreland described as gains in Vietnam. General Westmoreland is saluting. It is an impressive sight and we know what happened to Westmoreland and the war. Let's face it, to our present leadership, Vietnam never existed.
I don't know General Petraeus, but have heard good things about him. This report,however, will forever taint him. It's not his fault. Maybe it's OK with him.
The President is the commander, and he really can do anything he wants. I'm not to big on protocol; but, I think, in the strict sense, the President is violating the chain of command. He should be talking to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who should be getting his information from Petraeus,surely not portraying Petraeus as the savior for Iraq. But, that is a minor point. I surely haven't heard the chain of command issue raised by anyone and why would they? Most of the Congress would not know the meaning of the military chain of command or the concept of it if it ran over them.
Anybody with any smarts can tell you that whatever Petraeus says will be taken by the President or his rivals/detractors/the media to mean whatever they want it to mean. Spin will be the order of the day and that is unrelated to the real truth.
SOLDIERS HAVE TO BELIEVE IN THEIR MISSION
No one can doubt that Petraeus believes what he believes. He's a soldier and soldiers in general have to believe in what they are risking their lives for. Surely we applaud the sacrifice of the General. He's been in Iraq more or less for five years. He has a son that maybe going to Iraq.
The flip side of the coin is that he has all the benefits that his rank affords: great house at Fort Myers, good pay and benefits, and an entire bevy of servants (entourage) to look after and hang on every single word; and, in a sense, tell him, as he is going to tell the president, exactly what he wants to hear.
Here is pretty much what he said in general: the surge has worked, Iraq politics is not where it should be. He talked about the success in Anbar province. What he won't say is that the Sheiks want their former power back and so they are willing to throw in with the Americans even though they delighted in killing them previously.
He also won't say that in order for us to replicate the Anbar Province scene, we would have to be there for a hundred years. He will praise our soldiers, but what he will not say is that our military is stretched to the point of breaking, and we must figure out some sort of relief.
THE SPEECH THE GENERAL SHOULD MAKE
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a prepared talk but the media has pretty much said in advance what I had planned to say. Consequently, I want to put that one aside and talk off the cuff about Iraq.
We went in with a concept that will not work. We cannot export democracy as we know it to countries like Iraq. We have discovered that just because we have elections, doesn't mean that we are going to have democracy.
Democracy takes time, a long time-generations-and it is painful. For us to bring it about or contribute to it, we would have to be in Iraq a hundred years or more. Also, our initial judgements were flawed: two few troops to secure the country and especially the borders, dismantling the Army and the Police and purging the Bathists. All of this was made on wrong assumptions that we now understand.
However, all that being said,we are in Iraq and must figure a way out--a Christian nation occupying an Islamic one is a perception that the Arab world cannot tolerate, regardless of our good motives. It is just not going to work.
We must face the practical. Iraq is a country with a tribal mentality and they are not going to "come let us reason together" after thousands of years of conflict. For years, the Sunnis ruled and exacted blood from the Shiites. The tables are turned and revenge is a big part of the equation, plain, and simple.
Here's what I would suggest: 1)Get the conventional soldiers out of Iraq and leave 75,000 or so out in the desert. Use Special Forces soldiers who love the counterinsurgency environment and are good at it. 2) Dismantle most of the bases we have established in Iraq and start the withdrawal process sooner than later.
We did not enter this country with a plan, but we must leave it with a carefully thought out exit strategy. God bless our soldiers.
NOW THIS WOULD BE A SPEECH THAT WOULD NEVER BE FORGOTTEN AND PROBABLY SET UP PETRAEUS TO BE PRESIDENT ONE OF THESE DAYS.KT
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