Are the Republicans just at the start of a 5 year campaign for Petraeus in 2012?

[muriel_volestrangler]

It seems to me they've almost given up claiming that they have the right plans, or ability. In a tight spot they resort to "well, General Petraeus says ..." so often, that their point seems to be that he's the 'adult' who knows what to do, and can do it - they're just doing their best to put forward his point of view while he's occupied with this pesky military job he has at the moment.

[WinkyDink]

1. It's still the economy, .....

[JHB]

2. Oh, it's been going on longer than that.

Ever since he tossed aside his own manpower estimates for a successful occupation in order to put a rubber stamp of approval on the much lower numbers Rummy and President Cheney were after, they've been grooming him for a future career in republican politics. After all, he's a "war hero", don'cha know.

[cali]

3. no. the repuke party is on the edge of chaos

and Petraeus has no domestic policy background. The economy is the number 1 issue by a huge margin.

[Ikonoklast]

4. He's the appointed military overlord for the conquered territories

He is not a professional politician, and the sharp knives in Washington would slice him to ribbons if he ran as one.

Military men take orders, order their subordinates what to do, and expect blind obedience.

These are good traits for a general, but fatal flaws in a politician that needs to persuade, find consensus, and work with political adversaries to get things done.

[leveymg]

5. Petraeus had his own little-reported role in the WMD Lie that got us into Iraq

See, http://journals.democraticunderground.com/leveymg/311

PETRAEUS' IRAQ WMD DECEPTION: How the General Earned His Stripes With Bush-Cheney
Posted by leveymg in General Discussion
Tue Sep 11th 2007, 08:26 AM

In the last few days, it's come to light that Gen. Petraeus was the original source for incorrect information released to the U.S. media in May 2003 that mobile biological warfare trailers had been located in Iraq. False intelligence findings were indeed substituted for a 122-page DIA report suppressed by the Pentagon.

During the next year, the Bush-Cheney Administration continued to make false assertions that Saddam Hussein had a biotoxins program in place before the invasion, and that certain trailers found in Iraq proved that claim.

We now learn that a team of Defense Intelligence Agency investigators concluded on May 26 that the trailers found had no connection to a biowarfare program, but, nonetheless, Pentagon spokesmen and the Administration continued to make unfounded allegations that the mobile labs had been manufacturing anthrax, smallpox, and other deadly germs.

Gen. Petraeus appears to have taken no steps to correct the record after he falsely stated to reporters on May 13 that there is a "reasonable degree of certainty that this is in fact a mobile biological agent production trailer."

We should all ask why this part of Petraeus' history has been glossed over. Why has Congress and the media not pointed this out about the General before?

***

It's not so much what Petraeus said in his initial announcement on May 13, as what he did or didn't say publicly in the following weeks and months as the Administration repeated and embellished its story about Iraq WMDs. Petraeus went along with it, and kept his mouth shut. This sort of loyalty has its rewards in the Bush-Cheney Adminstration.

If the General -- widely portrayed as an icon of intelligence and integrity -- had made a good-faith effort to publicly correct the record, then his initial statement could be considered a mistake. Lots of them got made in Iraq, and his mistatement would be, perhaps, forgivable.

But, as he did not speak up and contradict the statements of superiors -- something that recently fired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Peter Pace did do occasionally (see, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/10/14... ) -- the General is part of the most serious fraud in U.S. history.

If one wonders what steps the Bush-Cheney cabal took to plant false evidence to justify the invasion after the fact, one need look no further than Petraeus' pronouncement that his troops had found the long-rumoured "mobile biological agent production trailer."

SNIP

Also, see, Petraeus "confirmed" to media in 2003 that they had found mobile ...
U.S. Troops Find Second Biological Weapons Trailer Near Mosul ..... Edited on Sat Sep-08-07 04:03 PM by leveymg ... The Democrats praise Patraeus! ...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1762489 - 198k - Cached - Similar pages

[No Elephants]

8. Thank you for that. Democrats should be talking about that more.

[Historic NY]

6. Won't run trust me.....Peaches doesn't want the spotlight he is low key.

[No Elephants]

7. Good question. I think they will run anyone they think has a chance of

winning, whether or not they can do the job. Palin is proof positive of that.

[Ganja Ninja]

9. Lord knows who they'll run in 2012.

It depends on whether the evangelicals are even still part of the party or not. If I had to pick their candidate today I'd say it would be Huckabee. But if Barack turns the country around they may face a situation like this year where any candidate they choose will have an uphill battle to win.

[Orsino]

10. Four years from now, the occupation will have ended...

...and thousands of troops who have been kept hidden in Iraq will long since have come home to talk about the war. I doubt that Petraeus will be basing a political career on being the Hero of Baghdad.