Musings

General Petraeus may have an eye on entering politics on retirement. He was quickly given his fourth star when he was enlisted to help sell the Surge to The Congress and to the British. The British military said “No thank you,” and declined to delay the scheduled departure of their few soldiers still left in Iraq. So, the Surge went forward without the Mother Country. The General proclaimed success when the violence in Baghdad declined as a result of Moqtada al-Sadr ordering the Mahdi Army to cool it except in self defense, but the General claimed the credit.

Recently, Petraeus was moved from Iraq Command to CentCom to replace Admiral William Fallon who gave orders not to fire on Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf that were “taunting” American warships. Imagine an Admiral defusing a potentially explosive confrontation at sea without permission from the White House. With Petraeus in charge of the Persian Gulf, it may be easier to create a neo-logical strategy to provoke the Iranians into providing a pretext for an American air strike on “military” targets within Iran.

The General’s latest testimony before Congress shows he is on the fast to a political career. When asked how he defines “success” in Iraq, he replied “What we are fighting for is national interest. … It has to do with regional stability, a region that is of critical importance to the global economy.” How easily he moved from national “security” to national “interest,” clearly the mark of a politician in the making. Now if he can avoid getting roped into a speaking engagement before the UN Security Council where he could lose credibility …