I continue to be alarmed by the amount of shucking that is going on in the direction of General Petreaus, as if one man were going to come along and "win the war on terror" for us. It started with Bush and I vaguely recall that Glenn Greenwald compiled a list of the administration's penchant for pushing the Generals into the limelight selectively. Now, Petraues is a real thinking-man's soldier, but is he "The Decider"?
Here's Lindsey Graham, R-ubberstamp, S.C., going at it:
I will not vote for anything until generous—General Petraeus passes on it. No senator, no congressman—no matter how much I respect you—you’re not going to be able, in my opinion, to give the advice that General Petraeus can give, and I’m going to wait till he comes back and listen to his advice and not some politician.
Here's a military history lesson, of why it is "o.k." to listen to politicians, too, Mr. Graham:
MacArthur Fired:4/10/1951--
From the beginning of the war, there was constant friction between MacArthur and the Joint Chiefs in Washington. MacArthur constantly pressured to expand the war, claiming that the only way to bring about victory was by taking the war to China. After the defeat of the American forces in November, he claimed that the only way to stop the Chinese was to expand the war. Ridgeway's victories undermined that position. After it became clear that the conflict was heading towards a stalemate, MacArthur began to oppose that policy, believing in the need for a larger war. He wrote a letter to the House Republican Leader, stating that anything less than total victory in Asia was unacceptable. This, as well as some of his other actions -- including his secret communications to the Spanish government -- brought about the difficult decision to relieve MacArthur of his command. On April 11, he was so informed.
TOMORROW'S YESTERDAYS
And Joe Lieberman, bless him, wants to fight Islamists and to counter Iranian influence, but apparently hasn't tallied up the costs of doing do, as is.
In a hat-tip to the "I Like Ike" crowd, check out this, which immediately followed Truman's firing of MacArthur, and see how similar it seems to what we are hearing today:
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"I want to talk plainly to you tonight about what we are doing in Korea and about our policy in the Far East. In the simplest terms, what we are doing in Korea is this: We are trying to prevent a third world war.
I think most people in this country recognized that fact last June. And they warmly supported the decision of the Government to help the Republic of Korea against the Communist aggressors. Now, many persons, even some who applauded our decision to defend Korea, have forgotten the basic reason for our action.
It is right for us to be in Korea. It was right last June. It is right today.
I want to remind you why this is true.
The Communists in the Kremlin are engaged in a monstrous conspiracy to stamp out freedom all over the world. If they were to succeed, the United States would be numbered among their principal victims. It must be clear to everyone that the United States cannot -- and will not -- sit idly by and await foreign conquest. The only question is: When is the best time to meet the threat and how? [cont.]"
