Posted by cranston36 (anonymous) on November 20, 2007 at 8:15 p.m. (Suggest removal)

His given name is David Howell Petraeus.
He is the commander of the ‘Multi-National Force – Iraq ’.
General Patreaus – or – as some like to call him – General Betrayus.
During this general’s time in Iraq nothing has really changed ‘on the ground’.
Osama Bin Laden is still missing.
The Turks just attacked northern Iraq with artillery and helicopters and some say warplanes.
Oil is still not flowing out of Iraq .
General Betrayus sits in a windowless office in Baghdad – from one report – looking at computer screens and answering the telephone.
He may be in touch with himself but from the looks of things he is in touch with little else.
How did the little Dutch Boy get his job in Iraq ? Who knows?
He has been an outspoken political sideshow which has provided powerful friends.
For example – after getting accidently shot in the chest he was operated on by future Senator Bill Frist – the Tennessee loudmouth who bungled his bid for the Presidency.
Betrayus also broke his pelvis when he went skydiving off duty and got tangled in his ropes.
There has been an incredible surge in spending in Iraq .
There has been very little accounting for that spending.
Betrayus has been quoted as saying, ‘Money is ammunition’.
Are you beginning to see the problem?
Body armor, over 100,000 AK-47’s, pistols and ammunition have been ‘misplaced’. All during the time that Betrayus was in charge of security training.
Now he is the big chief.
Do you think things are going to improve?

Posted by Hawk1E (anonymous) on February 26, 2008 at 12:29 a.m. (Suggest removal)

not until we are able to pull out of iraq and show the rest of the world that we condone the actions taken by president bush. perhaps prior to or during a trial against the bush cabinet for war crimes.

Posted by CAFEmporia (anonymous) on February 26, 2008 at 10:06 a.m. (Suggest removal)

I think you are both wrong. Petraeus has done a fantastic job turning around a miserable, losing war into something that may allow us to get out with some dignity, leaving Iraq in a position to rebuild itself. That he has spent a great deal is no surprise and that mistakes have happened on his watch - both tours of duty - is no surprise. He could not personally be in two places at once, let alone a thousand.

The surge has done some good. It is not the huge success the media is touting, but we like to see things in black and white rather than shades of gray. Much good has been done. Much good. Baghdad is much more stable even if much of that stability arrives with high walls protecting neighborhoods from adjoining neighbors, even if it comes as a result of religious segregation, moving one group out of a neighborhood or town to a more remote area.

There are still many, many problems, though. Political changes have not taken place, though some progress is being made. Kurdistan is becoming more of a problem as relations with Turkey get worse and worse. The Kurds need to stop being helpful and supportive of the PKK.

In Basra, a dictatorial theocratic form of government overrides the previous secular government. If this becomes the model of a future Iraq, we will have created a monster. Hopefully, the Iraqi federal government will gain power and reverse this trend.

But Petraeus, himself, has done wonders and does not deserve such criticism. As a soldier, he can be blamed only for military errors, and of that, he has done much, much more good than not.

Posted by Hawk1E (anonymous) on February 26, 2008 at 4:27 p.m. (Suggest removal)

i am not attacking petraeus, he doing what he can with the situation at hand.

Posted by jayhawker (anonymous) on May 25, 2008 at 4:59 p.m. (Suggest removal)

I am so thankful that the attitudes of so many today did not exist during the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I, World War II and Korea. Where would we be today if this were not true?