There appears to be real reporting going on at the McClatchy newspapers. The reporters there don’t seem to be awed by all those medals on the chest of the great general. He is, they report, going to go back to Iraq and try to get the Iraqis to do our bidding by threatening a troop withdrawal that no one expects to happen. Apparently, he believes the Iraqis can’t read or access the internet. Apparently the general would have been better off had he stuck to Fox:
Despite President Bush’s pledge Thursday that U.S. troops will remain in Iraq after he leaves office, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David Petraeus, said Friday that he will still use the prospect of troop withdrawals to persuade Iraq’s political leaders to resolve their differences.
In a half-hour interview Friday with McClatchy Newspapers at the Pentagon, Petraeus said the message that he and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker will take back to Baghdad is: “Let’s get on with it (or) you are going to have to take it on by yourself.”
We also learn from the good general, who wrote an op-ed piece glowing with false optimism just before the 2004 election, is uncomfortable with his role as chief political spokesperson for the boy king:
The general expressed discomfort with his growing public persona and with the fact that some now see him as a political figure who’s become the face of the Bush administration’s Iraq policy.
“I am not entirely comfortable, candidly, with sort of being in this particular situation,” Petraeus said. “I’ve actually tried to stay somewhat apolitical. …I guess it’s sort of evitable to end up in this position.”
One must wonder if it has dawned on the hero (it is not precisely clear why he is a hero, but he is) of Iraq that he is not supposed to be “somewhat” apolitical. He is supposed to be entirely apolitical. But that, apparently, is far too much to expect in this corrupt age.
Besides making do with generals that are only somewhat political, we must also, apparently, make do with generals that are somewhat honest:
“We are not trying to mislead, I assure you that.”
But Petraeus also acknowledged that his claim that Baghdad’s security forces have 445,000 people on the payroll may have exaggerated the size of the force.
I submit however, that I could get Petreaus off should someone sue him for misrepresentation. In order to maintain such an action, one must prove that someone reasonably relied on the actor’s falsehood. It is per se unreasonable for anyone to rely on anything coming from Bush or his mouthpieces.
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