Petraeus Gave Student Summer VIP Tour of Iraq

[ProSense]

Talk About Field Trips!

Petraeus Gave Student Summer VIP Tour of Iraq

By Megan Greenwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, September 3, 2007; Page C01

CAMP TAJI, Iraq -- The briefing was top secret, limited to a group of men with titles ranging from captain to four-star general -- plus one awed 19-year-old civilian.

At first, the teenager sat outside the briefing room with a handful of reporters. Then an aide to Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, poked his head out of the door and said, "Wesley Morgan? General Petraeus wants you in here."

Morgan, a sophomore at Princeton, spent his summer vacation in Iraq on a personal invitation from Petraeus. He met with the visiting then-Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Salih, and had access to multiple classified briefings. He helped patrol streets in Baghdad. His identification card read "journalist," because he keeps a blog about his experiences, but he was treated more like one of the members of Congress or other VIPs who have passed through Iraq.

The trip was the chance of a lifetime for Morgan, an ROTC cadet who said he first became interested in military history and counterinsurgency at age 6. But Petraeus's invitation also highlights his desire to attract more people like Morgan to military service -- the guys with degrees from places like Princeton (where Petraeus himself earned a doctorate), the slightly nerdy ones who are as comfortable poring over treatises on counterinsurgency tactics as going out on patrol.

"He has studied Iraq deeply and is exceedingly well read," Petraeus said of his protege. "I love to see these types of people here."

more

(emphasis added)

Why do I smell propaganda? Withdraw the troops! This is Iraq.

[Olney Blue]

1. Hope the kid gets out of there alive.

[EFerrari]

2. What utter cr@p!

Why does the WaHo need to shill for the Pentagram?

[Ian David]

3. I've seen this movie before...

"I'm only a sophomore, General Patraus. I'm majoring in Musical Theater on a Heritage Foundation Scholarship."

[Mojorabbit]

4. I don't have a problem with this

for a some weird reason. It seems the kid was meant for the military since he was little. Why this is so is another question. Did he watch a lot of war movies? Does he come from a military family? Does he have an inate aptitude for the strategy of warfare?
This fascination did not come out of the air. An unanswered question I have about the article.

Still... there it is. As long as he is not dishing out propaganda and is where he wants to be learning on the job or vacation as it were, so be it. Perhaps he will see what war is really about, become a general himself someday, and do a better job than has been done this time around. I would never in a million years though let my kid, (if I had one) do this. At least I don't think I would. I say all this coming from a military family myself with a sister serving in the AF.

I guess I am ambivilent about it after all.

[MiniMe]

5. Petreaus is out of ideas, and he is looking to a 19 year old for some fresh ones?

[unhappycamper]

6. You smell propaganda because ROTC *IS* propaganda.

Many of the junior officers come from ROTC; this trip was just throwing some red meat their way.