Ike got in front of troops in his uniform

[hifiguy]

on D-Day and pre-emptively wrote a letter of resignation to FDR in the event Operation Overlord failed. Petraeus dropped his trousers for a bimbo while commanding an operation Ike would have delegated to a light colonel.

Think about it.

Now who was the greater general?

[msongs]

1. Ike was boinking his driver during the war (or some other underling) nt

[ananda]

3. That is true.

..

[Bigmack]

9. Actually... I read that Ike had ED and couldn't.... well... nt

[hifiguy]

2. kick for the day crowd

[edhopper]

4. I have no idea why he is considered a great General

Oliver Stone took him down on the CBS Morning show.

[uponit7771]

5. Relative to todays flag officer ranks he's a step above, those ranks starting to look like 1%ers

[edhopper]

6. that's a low bar /nt

[kiva]

7. Has anyone read The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today

by Thomas Ricks? I was listening to an interview with him a couple of weeks ago and it sounds like he wrote about some of the differences between military leadership in Ike's time and today....hmmm, think I'll get it dowloaded to read.

[Octafish]

8. Some people are just good at looking good.

Others are good at doing good.

Wish that more could tell the difference:

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron." -- Dwight D. Eisenhower, From a speech before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953, 34th president of US 1953-1961 (1890 - 1969)

"Well, the oil, the oil spot, if you will, is a, is a term in counterinsurgency literature that connotes a peaceful area, secure area. So what you're trying to do is to always extend that, to push that out." -- David Petraeus, no idea where he uttered that one, but I do know what he was talking about: money.

[hifiguy]

20. + a googolplex for Ike.

Quoted by Roger Waters on his last tour.

[Bigmack]

10. Petraeus couldn't shine the shoes of two REAL generals...

... 3 Medals of Honor and 10 Purple Hearts between them.

“War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious.
“I spent 33 years in the Marines. Most of my time being a high-class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer for capitalism.”
Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC two time Medal of Honor recipient. 8 Purple Hearts


`I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar soaked fingers out of the business of these (Third World) nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own. And if unfortunately their revolution must be of the violent type because the `haves' refuse to share with the `have-nots' by any peaceful method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American style, which they don’t want and above all don’t want crammed down their throats by Americans.' –
Gen. David Shoup, United States Marine Commandant...Medal of Honor recipient.... 2 Purple Hearts (I'm proud to say that Gen Shoup was my Commandant during the first part of my time in.)

[hifiguy]

16. Wow. That is a soldier - err, a Marine -

in the highest and best traditions of the US military. And thank you for your service. A couple of my uncles were Marines in WW II

[amborin]

11. Not great at all:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021812916

[Jersey Devil]

12. I never understood the hero worship of Petreus

OK, he was a terrific academic, graduating in the top 5% at West Point and tops in his military classes and obtained a phD, but never faced live fire in combat, though he was, for a short time, commander of a unit in Bosnia. He won a bronze star but never fired a rifle or was wounded in combat, supposed because of a mortar shell that hit near him (but didn't wound him). He was more of a diplomat than a combat commander in many cases, rebuilding things, running elections, etc.

So why all the hero worship of this guy? What has he accomplished that puts him above other military officers?

[glacierbay]

13. Here's a picture of him addressing the

Paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division on D-Day. That is a real General.

[hifiguy]

14. ^THIS^

Note the ordinary uniform. Ike wasn't much for wearing his fruit salad. He was a workhorse, not a showhorse, like a real military man.

[glacierbay]

15. He wasn't about pomp and glitter

he was all about getting the job done and he was a soldiers general.

[bluedigger]

17. Probably D-1 day.

The 101st was spread to hell and gone in France by "O'dark hundred" on D Day.

[glacierbay]

18. This picture was taken on June 5, 1944 in England

This was just before they boarded the transport aircraft for the flight across the channel.

[bluedigger]

19. As I thought.

"Air Assault!"