A Soldier's Perspective

General Petraeus May Recommend More Troop Cuts

General Petraeus says that come this fall he will probably be able to recommend more troops cuts. As he gets set to take over command of Central Command, Petraeus spoke before the Senate Armed Services Committee saying, "My sense is I will be able to make a recommendation at that time for further reductions." I wonder if this declaration will precipitate another statement by Congressman Robert Wexler that Petraeus is a "biased, partisan amateur" like he did when the general testified that the surge was succeeding. My sense is that since the defeatists in this country are so dedicated to failure bringing the troops home that they will hail these comments as brilliant examples of how we've failed and we need to bring everyone home. Of course, the reality is that our successes will allow us to bring our troops home with their heads held high!

Nancy Peloser all but called him a liar at his last report to Congress on the progress if the war in Iraq. Nancy Boyda (maybe it's a Nancy thing) actually left a hearing in which LTG Keane was briefing Gen Petraeus' Iraq strategy. Harry Reid (mouth vomit) also accused Gen Petraeus of lying by claiming he "cherry picked" data about the surge successes. Reid (more mouth vomit) also thinks Petraeus is incompetent. Is it just me or do all these individuals share something in common? Maybe it's just me.

My question is, since Petraeus is supposedly this huge liar as quoted by the leaders in both the House and Senate (and others in between) does that mean we SHOULDN'T believe him when says it's time to bring the troops home? Or are these defeatist losers going to assume that this is something he's going to actually have some integrity about since it fits their political goals? Are they going to define for us when he is lying and when he telling the truth? Are they going to allow a "liar" take command of Central Command and risk the entire Middle East plummeting into chaos because of his integrity issues? After all, we can't have an "incompetent" General running the most important theater of operations in the entire world, can we?!

Senator Barack Obama was at Petraeus' testimony too, but not for long. He stayed in the committee meeting long enough to ask one question, before ducking out to head back to the campaign trail. This wouldn't normally be a big deal, except …

Senator Obama has never sat down, one-on-one, with General Petraeus. Even worse, he hasn't visited Iraq, and our brave troops on the ground, in over two years. And on April 8, when two-dozen Illinois veterans went to his office for a meeting, Senator Obama was unwilling to meet with them. He was in his office, just wouldn't come out. Why hasn't he met with General Petraeus? And why won't he visit Iraq? And why would Senator Obama rather talk about meeting—unconditionally—with Iran, instead of meeting with veterans and commanders? America deserves to know.