Then we have our President. He has failed at every endeavor during his presidency. Don’t think for a second that this egomaniac doesn’t hear the catcalls and jeers that follow him everywhere he goes. His legacy is now tied to the war in Iraq, he has nothing else. He desperately needed a general that would succeed in Iraq, and
promoted Petraeus when General Dave told him that he had a plan.
This is Bush’s management style; he is a dull and unimaginative man himself, he picks one guy to believe and then sticks with him. He did this with Rumsfeld to the nation’s deep regret. Now he’s doing the same with Petraeus.

General Petraeus has been impressive. Even though the success of the escalation is due to paying off both sides in a civil war, he has managed to isolate and destroy many foreign elements that were previously giving our side fits. It’s really a shame that he wasn’t allowed greater leeway sooner. If we had any kind of real leadership out of the executive branch, he would be paired with a man in Washington to run interference for him, like Powell did for Schwarzkopf or Marshall did for Eisenhower in WWII. Unfortunately, our commander in chief is Bush/Cheney, and both of them have well deserved reputations as being liars and completely untrustworthy.
When Bush vows to do something nowadays, it is almost assured that it will never been done. And Cheney has been in la-la land for some time, telling bold faced lies and insisting that they are true.

So they are trotting out Petraeus to play their political games for them.
Congress is forced to tone down the questions to a successful general, if they don’t show respect for the military while a war is going on they will very likely be voted out come the next election. And
Petraeus is committed, this is his war, and he has no intention of losing it.

Unfortunately, the problem is: That there is a world going on, one in which there is terrorism, and economic upheaval, and other things which are a whole lot more important to the future of the nation than
Bush’s freaking legacy. There is a reason that there is a joints-chiefs, and a Secretary of Defense, and a State department. That reason has to do with the future well being of the nation. The neocons should not be myopically focusing on Iraq because it’s their money-maker; they should be taking a broad view of national security demands, the implications of the war on the global (and US) economy, the war in Afghanistan, the Muslim extremist terrorists, the health and well being of the American military, and a hundred other things.

Then there is the tactical situation in Iraq. The borders are still wide open, foreign fighters and arms are still coming in. The Saudis, Kuwaitis and the UAW are arming the Sunnis. The Americans support on Sheite faction (Maliki) over another Sheite faction (el-Sadr) but
are arming and paying both armies. As soon as the payments stop, the civil war is on. It is, quite literally, madness.

But Petraeus’s work has given the neocons a lull, and they are now promoting him before the feces hits the oscalliting device. The neocons had fired his boss (Fallon) who wanted diplomacy with Iran, sending the same message as Rumsfeld did when he fired the general who told him (correctly) that his invasion plan for Iraq was nonsense doomed to failure. Now they have brought Petraeus back, prematurely because he has just started to succeed, to run political interference for them in Washington in their quest to both continue the war and to start a new war with Iran. It is very slick, for it assures them of keeping the Iraqi war going unabated— the neocons have been spending more money on Iraq recently than ever before; they need to get every last nickle for themselves and their greedy corporate buddies before they lose power and they are investigated. And it allows them to continue pounding the war drums on Iran, a war which would be so disastrous for the American economy and the average American but oh so lucrative for the oil cartels and the military industrial complex. And it gives them a new neocon star, if General Dave Petraeus happens to accept it. So far he has been apolitical, but he has articulated presidential ambitions.

What could be better for the republicans? Tailor made for Fox news soundbites: The man who was winning in Iraq until the democrats took over. That taking the general out of Iraq, where he is needed, to trot him out for their political maneuvers in Washington ill suits the situation in Iraq doesn’t concern them.

What concerns them is keeping those cost plus contracts going.

Hopefully, Dave Petraeus will turn out to be another Smedley Butler, and after next year the neocons and their anti-American movement will be history, save for cleaning up their mess and jailing a few of them. I’d say hanging them, but they haven’t hung any politicians lately, even though quite a few of them on both sides are in desperate need of Mr knotted branch and Mr twisted hemp.

The whorish supination of ALL the candidates and Congress, allowing the Israelis,the dominant militray force in the Middle East, carte blanche only ENABLES the coontributing arguments for the strategy and tactics that Petraeus will have at his disposable.