Monday, October 01, 2007

If you were irked by MoveOn's Petraeus Pun earlier this month, you probably won't like the Petraeus take offered by BU professor Andrew Bacevich in the Oct. 8 issue of the American Conservative.  Here's part of Bacevich's assessment--in a piece titled "Sycophant Savior"--of Petraeus's congressional testimony on the Iraq "surge":

Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes....

A great political general doesn’t tell his masters what they want to hear. He tells them what they need to hear, thereby nudging them to make decisions that must be made if the nation’s interests are to be served. In this instance, Petraeus provided cover for them to evade their responsibilities.

Politically, it qualifies as a brilliant maneuver. The general’s relationships with official Washington remain intact. Yet he has broken faith with the soldiers he commands and the Army to which he has devoted his life. He has failed his country. History will not judge him kindly.

Ouch.

10/1/2007 1:56:02 PM by Adam Reilly | Comments [1] |