Petraeus Leaked Misleading Story

[TexasProgresive]

POLITICS-US: Petraeus Leaked Misleading Story on Pullout Plans
Analysis by Gareth Porter*
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45720

WASHINGTON, Feb 9 (IPS) - The political maneuvering between President Barack Obama and his top field commanders over withdrawal from Iraq has taken a sudden new turn with the leak by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus - and a firm denial by a White House official - of an account of the Jan. 21 White House meeting suggesting that Obama had requested three different combat troop withdrawal plans with their respective associated risks, including one of 23 months.

The Petraeus account, reported by McClatchy newspapers Feb. 5 and then by the Associated Press the following day, appears to indicate that Obama is moving away from the 16-month plan he had vowed during the campaign to implement if elected. But on closer examination, it doesn't necessarily refer to any action by Obama or to anything that happened at the Jan. 21 meeting.

The real story of the leak by Petraeus is that the most powerful figure in the U.S. military has tried to shape the media coverage of Obama and combat troop withdrawal from Iraq to advance his policy agenda - and, very likely, his personal political interests as well.

Also at
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/02/10

[MrModerate]

1. Petreus is going to find that Ike's shoes are a bit too big for him to fill . . .

Come 2012.

[davidinalameda]

2. sounds more like McArthur

maybe Obama needs to retire the good general

[MrModerate]

5. I worked with him a little bit in Iraq, and he's not a megalomaniac . . .

As far as I could tell. Very smart, very disciplined, and somewhat charismatic. And he knew early on that the only way to rescue the totally fucked-up situation caused by Rumsfeld, Frank, Bremer, et al, was to somehow get the Iraqi people involved in holding the place together (rather than stealing everything or killing each other).

But he's waaaaay out of his weight here and, while he bears watching, Obama just needs to extract as much value from him as an effective commander as he can while whittling him down to life size. I'm sure Emmanuel has an implementation plan for Petreus.

[liberal N proud]

3. Petraeus will find that he best not betray Obama

I don't think Obama will kick his ass out but Petraeus like the GOP was handed an opportunity to cooperate with the new administration but chose their own path.

When they do want the support of the President, he may very well remember their little stunts. It could be a long 4 years for Petraeus and the republicans in Congress

[uponit7771]

4. Petraeus establish's my distrust of him, these people are so transparent

[deminks]

6. Et tu, Petraeus?

Was Move-On so wrong? I think not.

[Thrill]

7. There was an article about something he did with a base in Afganistan too

that appeared to be sending mixed messages from what Obama was trying to do.

He may have to remove Petraeus . I think going to all the football games and the newspaper clippings may have gone to his head

[berni_mccoy]

8. Time for a COURT-MARTIAL!

[olegramps]

9. He is typically what is wrong with the military attempting to warp politics.

Obama should issue a direct command as CIC that everyone in the military can only speak to the press with the authorization of the State Department. Any breach of this directive would be considered insubordination subject to Courts Martial.

Their speaking out on policy got completely out of hand during the Bush administration when they paraded an unending number of these generals before the press to propagandize their illegal and immoral war. Day after day we were subjected to their aggrandizement of a deteriorating situation.

The professional military has always posed a threat to democracies dating from Caesar and before. You only have to consider what has transpired time and again in history where military coups have developed into dictatorships.

[AtomicKitten]

10. I read Patraeus and Gates tried to persuade Obama to nix his campaign promise of 16-months.

Not only are they disregarding promises Obama made but they are disregarding the Status of Forces Agreement Junior signed on his way out putting a firm time table in place.

No worries. I have every confidence Obama will correct them and let them know in no uncertain terms who's boss.

[Jennicut]

11. Yeah, he won't let anyone of them tell him what to do. I am confident of that too.

[Malikshah]

12. Gee, now can we call the cad Betrayus?

Nothing like a rogue figure as head of Centcom....

Jackass.