And who is this Petraeus cardboard cut-out, anyhow, a guy who seems miraculously capable of exploding two dimensions out into the appearance of four? Let’s ask his commanding officer, Admiral William Fallon, who apparently recently referred to Bush’s ‘Pet’ as a "sycophant" and "an ass-kissing little chickenshit", later adding, "I hate people like that". So do we, Admiral Bill, so do we. And we’re hoping against hope that maybe someone like you will show Colin Powell what he should have done by publicly telling the truth about what you know, and doing so while it still matters.
Or perhaps you and the good general have both learned what might be best described as the ‘Shinseki lesson’ about this administration. Which is that, regardless of the length or the achievements of you career, if you tell the truth you’ll soon be home spending your weekdays with the wife, pruning the garden and puttering around the house with a remote control in one hand and a whiskey sour in the other, rather than commanding forces in the world’s most powerful military as you quite recently did in your former career.
Indeed – and what a shocking concept this will be to readers everywhere – not only do these greatest of sell-outs understand well how to play the game, they are only on the board at all because of that understanding. Given the well-established patterns of the nineteenth century atavistic throwbacks in this administration – the same people who hired and fired United States Attorneys on the basis of being "loyal Bushies" – would it be such a leap to imagine that Petraeus’ singular qualification for his current assignment was the post-spinectomy gaping hole in his back which allows just enough room for Dick Cheney’s hand to slip inside and grab the levers therein? Does anyone think that Bush and Cheney went on the hunt for the most effective military leader they could find – like Lincoln did when he kept firing his commanders until he found Grant – without regard to the guy’s controllability factor? If you’ve learned anything at all about Bush and Cheney these last miserable years, you know that precisely the opposite is true. That the finest commanders in the world would be passed over, their careers shattered if necessary, in order to find the yessiest yes-man in the military, even if that meant grabbing some hapless supply sergeant cleaning his teeth while sitting behind a rusty desk on a forgotten base somewhere outside of Seoul. And that nobody even asked whether a guy like Petraeus knew the first damn thing about how to solve the monumental monstrosity that is Iraq.
But it turns out that Petraeus does know a thing or two about this stuff. He actually wrote the Army’s field manual on how to conduct counterinsurgency warfare. In a foolish burst of honest analysis (in printed form, no less – bad move, Dave), Petraeus wrote that such an operation need to be properly staffed-out to the tune of about 20 soldiers per 1,000 people in the local population. Uh-oh. That works out to 500,000 American troops in Iraq, almost the exact same number that were deployed to, er, uh, Vietnam. Can you say "draft", boys and girls? No? Well, neither can our president, and it’s not because of the all-too-well-deserved reputation for syntax aversion he’s earned over the years. So, instead of plunging down that dangerous political path and reminding the assembled senators and representatives of his earlier analysis, the nice man in the green outfit with lots of metal and ribbon on his chest came before Congress and instead did his very best Emily Litella impression. "Never mind!" Geez, this guy could make Westmoreland look heroic.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned Civil War analogy is more than apt here, and not only because George W. Bush is said to admire the politically besieged Abraham Lincoln most among his predecessors (if predecessor isn’t too strong a word for men who actually were president, and who actually were elected, and who – many of them – actually earned the position after successful careers as politicians, military leaders and the like). Bush’s continual appeal to history, and to Lincoln’s steadfastness in particular, could hardly be more misplaced or more ironic.
Lincoln tossed away ineffective but politically correct generals like so much used Kleenex until he finally found one who, regardless of his rough mannerisms, could and indeed did win battles in what both understood was a total war against the Confederacy. Bush, on the other hand, is unwilling to ask of Americans even an end to the tax revenue giveaway he previously engineered, let alone a tax increase or a military draft, in order to pursue a war he continually equates to the greatest human struggles in history, including the war against fascism and the Cold War. And, directly contrary to Lincoln, he searches for a commanding general who is such a sycophant he’s willing to walk away from his own written conclusions about the requirements for winning a war in order to instead advance his career, including, apparently, even his presidential aspirations. One look at Petreaus might induce laughter at such hubris, except for the reminder slamming back into memory immediately thereafter of the clown now occupying the White House. If W can do it, anyone can do it.
Meanwhile, you can bet Petraeus really plays well among the troops, eh? Just what they needed, another leadership figure to further their mass slaughter in pursuit of some joker’s political ambitions. A real soldier’s general is ol’ Dave.
Then there’s the matter, when Bush pretends to be responding to his military advisors, of which advisors he’s supposedly listening to. The word is that there is a huge cohort of both current and retired brass who strongly recommend exiting the sinking ship of Iraq. Funny, they don’t seem to have the president’s ear. Something tells me that Bush hasn’t been trying to track down Eric Shinseki for his opinions, despite the fact that the former Army Chief of Staff was the one who got it right originally. If this whole absurd scenario has all the makings a ridiculous farce, that’s because it is – right before the tragedy part. Bush never asked the soldiers whether to go into Iraq, and he’s only pretending to ask whether to come out by finding a sycophant’s sycophant who will say what he wants said, and putting that dude in charge, meanwhile tossing overboard gutsy profiles in courage like Eric Shinseki.
Such a courageous Decider, isn’t he? When things appeared to be going well, it was all about him, the commander-in-chief. He announced the war to us like this, and notice how he emphasized the decisive role of you-know-who: "On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war." Now, though, he’s just accepting the recommendations of the military staff. As if they would say "It’s time to pull out of Iraq, Mr. President". As if, had Petraeus told the truth to Congress and the president, Bush would have said, "Shoot, I wanted to stay, but I guess I have to defer to your wisdom, General, and bring the boys and girls home."
Bush is no less hiding behind the men in uniform now as he is when he continually delivers policy addresses to assembled military personnel who are unable to express their disapproval of his lies. What is happening here is a typical Rovian sleight-of-hand. It’s become conventional wisdom nowadays that politicians – even the commander-in-chief – shouldn’t micro-manage the military in fighting America’s (seemingly endless) wars. There’s some valid justification for that concept, but part of this mantra is also driven by the conservative framing of how we lost Vietnam. In any case, the Rove/Bush propaganda machine has conveniently morphed that plausible concept into the present scenario, so that Bush can be seen as simply respecting the autonomy of his command staff.
That, of course, is an absurd notion, and not only because he’s picked those commanders on the very basis of their willingness to have their strings pulled. In the prosecution of wars, there is a hierarchy, from bottom to top, running from tactics to strategy to policy. Sure, lieutenants should optimally be free to make tactical choices (with some guidance from above), and generals should make the strategic decisions best suited for winning the conflict (again, not without input from on high). They’re there, on the ground, and they’re trained professionals – this is their area of expertise. But in a democracy – and especially one which loves to champion the notion of civilian rule over the military – the policy choices have to be made by the politicians. Generals don’t decide whether to go to war – presidents and Congresses do. And they’re also the ones who decide when enough is enough and it’s time to come home. Unless, of course, you’re a politician hiding your unpopular policies behind a camouflage skirt in order to fool the public (again).
Given that a whopping five percent (no, that’s not a typo) of the American public continue to trust the president on Iraq policy questions, and given the administration’s obsessive/compulsive disorder when it comes to lying at every possible opportunity, it’s hardly a surprise that they would trot out Petreaus to desperately sell what they themselves cannot. But even that hasn’t worked. Poll data show the public completely unmoved after last week’s embarrassing kabuki dance. Americans have had enough – of the lies, of the violence, of the fiscal costs, of the diminished American security, of the failure – and, for that matter, of the president, too.
This show is over – it’s only a matter of time, and of lives lost. Not even a shiny-starred general with ribbons on his chest and a fancy sheaf of West Wing-produced talking points can reel it in anymore.
This is especially true as the Republicans in Congress look ahead to 2008 and see that their careers are about to meet the same fate as the million or so Iraqis whom Mr. Bush’s war for freedom has liberated, not only from Saddam, but also from the burden of having to wake up every morning.
Catch you later, Coleman. See you, Smith. Close the door on the way out, Collins. Sayonara, Sununu. Feel free to kick Bush’s butt for taking you down when you begin your brief term in political purgatory, starting January of 2009. It should be quite crowded there by then, full of Republican rejects.
Meanwhile, rest assured that none of you will be the least bit missed.
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