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WASHINGTON — Army Gen. David Petraeus (peh-TRAY'-uhs) says capturing or killing al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden (oh-SAH'-muh bin LAH'-din) remains a primary goal of U.S. forces.
The top U.S. and NATO military commander in Afghanistan tells NBC's "Meet the Press" that bin Laden is an "iconic figure" and his arrest remains a "very important task for all of those who are engaged in counterterrorism around the world."
Read more: Petraeus: Capturing bin Laden still a primary goal | islandpacket.com (http://www.islandpacket.com/2010/08/15/1339321/petraeus-capturing-bin-laden-still.html#ixzz0wksWlEBd - broken link)
It looks as though the good general has decided to question the Commander in Chief's strategy for Afghanistan in public. While it's couched in polite and rational terms, he's setting himself against his boss and attempting to marshall enough public support to force the President to do it his way. He seems to be operating from the idea that he has enough political capital and a good enough reputation in Congress (where it matters) to change the game.
This is precisely what got his predecessor in trouble the first time. When Gen. McChrystal openly called for an addition of more troops while the President was still mulling over the request and his confidential memo to Obama was "leaked," the President rightly read him the riot act in private and such shenanigan's ended. Will he have the political courage to do the same to Petraeus? The general is more politically astute than McChrystal was and may not give the President the opening he needs to rein in his hand-picked Savior of Afghanistan. But, at some point, it will have to be done or Obama will find himself fighting an unpopular, perpetual war in Afghanistan, which won't sell very well in 2012. The public has grown weary of it as it just seems to go on and on and on without any prospect that it will ever get better. What the President needs to be aware of is that no general will ever tell anyone that more troops and more fighting isn't the answer. It's what they do.
Frankly, the undeclared war between the administration and the Pentagon's top generals is beginning to remind me of Truman vs McArthur or, better yet, Lincoln vs McClelland. During the Civil War, McClelland was the most popular general in the Army and a favorite of Congress. He used his power and influence to challenge Lincoln's handling of the war, making it extremely difficult for the President to remove him. Eventually, he did and McClelland did just what any political observor would have expected him to do...he ran against Lincoln in the 1864 election, making that election all about how to win the war.
Actually they seem to work rather well together. I read his comments about Afghanistan and he was in agreement with pretty much everything and said US started seeing improvement there this year.
There's an old expression, those who don't read history are condemned to repeat it. You can go through more than two centuries of U.S. history and come up with a whole encyclopedia full of generals who got the axe from Presidents. Even Douglas MacArthur didn't believe that President Truman would dare to remove him from command--and he found himself on the wrong side of the argument!
American generals just have to understand that when you get to the bottom line, they serve at the pleasure of the Commander and Chief, who has the right to remove them. And it doesn't do any good to say that they ought to understand that; history seems to indicate that they don't.
Actually they seem to work rather well together. I read his comments about Afghanistan and he was in agreement with pretty much everything and said US started seeing improvement there this year.
While you agree with him, the President apparently does not as Petraeus' ideas run counter to Obama's stated goals.
And, remember that General Westmoreland was also claiming improvement right up until the Tet Offensive of 1968 in Vietnam. To a general wanting more troops and more under his command (their natural state), there will always be "improvement."
While you agree with him, the President apparently does not as Petraeus' ideas run counter to Obama's stated goals.
And, remember that General Westmoreland was also claiming improvement right up until the Tet Offensive of 1968 in Vietnam. To a general wanting more troops and more under his command (their natural state), there will always be "improvement."
If you read up you'll see they are on the same page even with the pull out goal. The goal is not carved in stone. It seems some people like to insist as if they argue about it, but there does not seem to be a any friction between the two.
“The president didn’t send me over here to seek a graceful exit,” General Petraeus said at his office at NATO headquarters in downtown Kabul. “My marching orders are to do all that is humanly possible to help us achieve our objectives.”
Are we certain Osama bin Laden is still alive? Does it matter? This sounds like another "casus belli" myth to continue the waste of money on a war that gains us nothing but makes the war mongers ever more wealthy.
Pataeus, and Mullen have been gaming Obama since his first days in office with regards to the Iraq withdrawl a game that unfortunately for McChrystal he was as well equipped to play. But having said that, I don't believe that Patraeus is anything approaching a MacArthur or a McClellan, after all he actually wins battles (only a slight exaggeration), I don't think that this latest gambit on his part rises to the level of McChrystal's imprudent remarks.
For an interesting take on the debate over Afghanistan I would suggest reading the pertinent chapters of Johnathan Alter's book The Promise. Absent that I think this article from Newsweek will do.
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Petraeus and Obama
