Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals

[99th_Monkey]

Source: Washington Post

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page A01

The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus's conduct of the war, as well as the Army counterinsurgency doctrine he helped rewrite. <snip>

Some junior and midlevel officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been particularly outspoken in their criticisms, saying the Army's current leadership lacks a hands-on understanding of today's conflicts and has not listened to feedback from younger personnel.

"It's unprecedented for the commander of an active theater to be brought back to head something like a brigadier generals board," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College. A senior defense official said Petraeus is "far too high-profile for this to be a subtle thing."

The board, composed of 15 Army generals, will examine a pool of more than 1,000 colonels to select about 40 brigadier generals, expected to lead the service over the next decade or longer. Although each board member has an equal vote on the candidates, Petraeus will be able to guide the discussion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111602258.html?wpisrc=newsletter

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This is NOT a good sign, despite the positive spin put on it in the article. We all know that Petraeus is Bush's bag man in the Pentagon, and an "ass-kissing little chickenshit" to boot. This is NOT about rewarding "hands-on" expertise in promotions to General, it's about hand-picking more Petraeus type ass-kissers who will not EVER dare question the insane war-lust of the Chimperor, such as General Fallon and CENTCOM have done recently vis-a-vis refusing to attack Iran. This move insures that the next generation of our Army's highest leaders will be unprincipled ass-kissers, willing to blindly execute whatever horrific orders come out of the White House. I'd love to get General Fallon's "off the record" opinion on this, but I'll probably have to wait until he joins the ranks of retired Generals who couldn't stomach this crap any longer.

[TwilightGardener]

1. Agree--this is bad. I've always thought the whole Petraeus glorification

was an artificial attempt to create a new Republican military hero in the mold of Powell, or Schwarzkopf, or Ike, for future political gain. I'm sure I won't be wrong.
edit to add: I don't trust the guy--he's 100% political schemer.

[99th_Monkey]

2. I fervantly hope General "not on my watch" Fallon doesn't retire anytime soon

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/16/fallon-carrier/

[JBoy]

3. Petraeus will think highly of this candidate

[goclark]

4. Huum each new General will walk like him, talk like him

and look exactly like him ~ cardboard cutouts of him.


Anybody that thinks GW is a lame duck raise your hand. :sarcasm:

[DemoTex]

5. First they purge the general officer corps.

Then they pack it with loyalists, toadies, and sycophants. This could be just another step in the incremental establishment of a fascist dictatorship. Martial law is a whole lot easier to pull-off with compliant generals.

[99th_Monkey]

6. Bingo! .. and damn .. we've got how many more months before Jan09? Too many

to feel very confident about the future of this once great nation.

[lyonn]

7. Could we have one of those emergency elections like Calif.?

Like this January? Since impeachments off the table we need immediate emergency action. At least some way to put George on hold from any actions towards any foreign nation.

Idiots (bush/cheney) and Commander-in-Chief is a really bad combo. America (minus the msm) sits around and says, Please George, don't do anything stupid - -. He hasn't done anything positive yet, why would he now that he and dick are about to be pushed out. This could be their last hurrah, get Iran and Pakistan.

[Gman]

8. So the ass-kissing little chicken-shit

is looking for some more self-ingratiating bots to suck ass and shove the outspoken ones out.

[allisonthegreat]

9. another piece of discouraging news from Washington

i wish Bush would just step down, but that is but my pipe dream.

[99th_Monkey]

10. Next they'll be revising the oath of military officers

"i do hereby swear to kiss my Chimperor's ass at every opportunity, and to be uphold His Fraudulency's edicts, no matter
how criminal or unconstitutional they may be, so help me Ga-a-awd"