Petraeus Is Just One More Corrupt Politician

Defenders of General Petraeus say he is a straight-shooter, a man of Integrity, and an honorable man. It may well be that at one time General Petraeus was all of those things. But any military man who will stand before Congress and say, as Petraeus did yesterday, “I believe that it is possible to achieve our objectives in Iraq over time, although doing so will be neither quick nor easy,” is a specious dissembler. What are the objectives of the Bush administration? That is to say, what are the objectives of the Bush administration today? Does anyone know? The so-called objectives have changed daily in the last year. On July 7, 2006 the Prez said he had confidence in Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki because “he represents the will of 12 million who went to the polls.” The Prez said Maliki was “a man who sets goals and understands what needs to be done”. The Prez said, “the United States will achieve its objective of ensuring that Iraq is a free country, able to govern, defend and sustain itself.” Last January when Bush said he was sending more troops into Iraq, he said the goal was “to protect the Iraqi public against attacks from insurgents and militias”. Just the other day, we were told that the Bush administration has no confidence in Maliki and that “the US goal in Iraq is to establish order”. From the time General David Petraeus replaced General George Casey on January 26, 2007, Petraeus has rubber-stamped the sly rhetoric, changed goals and lies of the Bush administration. During 2004-2005 when Petraeus was head of security in Iraq, Petraeus misplaced millions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of guns because he said he didn’t think keeping track of money and arms was important. Today those arms may be in the hands of the enemy...whoever that enemy may be—the Bush administration cannot rightly decide. Is the enemy the Iraq PM Maliki? Is it the Shiites? Is it the Sunnis? Is it the insurgents and militias? Is it “Al Qaeda in Iraq”? Is it the people in the United States who think the Bush administration has betrayed the entire United States? Tomorrow, whoever the Bush administration decides is THE ENEMY, General David Petraeus will say, “Yes! That’s the enemy...we have to stay in Iraq!” General David Petraeus is just another Bush administration politician whose career is on the line.