How Do You Know the Guy’s Effective?
When the footdragging status quos and murdering thug lobby want him gone.
Tempers flare between Iraqi, U.S. officials
Iraq prime minister reportedly wants Petraeus replaced for arming Sunnis
A key aide says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s relations with Gen. David Petraeus are so poor the Iraqi leader may ask Washington to withdraw the overall U.S. commander from his Baghdad post.
…Sami al-Askari, a key aide to al-Maliki and a member of the prime minister’s Dawa Party, said the policy of incorporating one-time Sunni insurgents into the security forces shows Petraeus has a “real bias and it bothers the Shiites,” whose communities have been targeted by Sunnis in Iraq’s sectarian conflict.
“It is possible that we may demand his removal,” al-Askari said.
A lawmaker from the al-Sadr blo, who wouldn’t allow use of his name because of the political sensitivity of the matter, said al-Maliki once told Petraeus:“I can’t deal with you anymore. I will ask for someone else to replace you.”
I hope Bush has made it clear this guy’s bulletproof.
Humanity...or the Lack Thereof | tree hugging sister | 
July 28, 2007 8:19 pm
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“Don’t go wobbly, George…”
Somehow I think Dubya does have enough of a sense of survival instinct not to shit can Petraeus. At least he’d better.
Hmmmmm.
The problem with the Iraqis is that they have never understood what the potential negative outcomes there are.
Perhaps this is the real story behind all this. That you cannot persuade people into democracy. You cannot shield them from the negative consequences of their actions, no matter how badly those actions are going to rebound onto them.
Sometimes you have to let people experience the worst before they decide that they want no part of it any more. This worked with Germany and Japan. We made them suffer so much, in such horrific ways, that even now 60+ years later since the end of WWII they recoil in horror from battle.
The other side of this of course is that because the muslim/Arab world was largely bypassed during WWII they didn’t experience first hand what kind of horror total war can be. And the gloved hands treatment they’ve gotten since hasn’t helped things any.
Oh, my. Yeah, Dubya, stay the course. Petraeus is the man. As one commander of mine told me, “If you ain’t pissing people off, then you’re not doing your job.”
That we allowed the Iraqis so much power has been a mistake from the beginning. Don’t count on our government to not cave in. They’ve made it clear that they want to show the world that the Iraqis are in complete control.