David Petraeus has admitted David Petraeus doesn't matter. Will anyone believe him?

[marmar]

from The American Prospect:



The Dispensable Man

David Petraeus has admitted David Petraeus doesn't matter. Will anyone believe him?

Ezra Klein | September 12, 2007 | web only



It's right there in the name: "The Petraeus Report." Not "The Petraeus Report on Iraq" or the "Military Assessment of the Surge," but "The Petraeus Report." The testimonies, the white papers, the MoveOn ads, and the presidential affirmations -- none of them are about Iraq. They are about David Petraeus.

This is the White House's political strategy: Make the continuation of the war a referendum on David Petraeus, and it will continue, because he's really dreamy. Make it a referendum on the state of the country (blown up), and the status of the political reconciliation (unreconciled), and the war will inch closer to its end.

That's the nice thing about hanging your war on a Great Man of History. There are lots of men. Many of them are very good in front of television cameras. And if the war continues to fail, you can keep switching them in and out, luxuriating in a new spray of gushing newsweekly profiles every time you do.

But what’s being discussed in the Senate is bigger than any one man. And David Petraeus knows that. There was a remarkable moment in yesterday's testimony, when Virginian Senator John Warner asked Petraeus whether his strategy in Iraq was making America safer. "Sir," replied Petraeus, "I believe indeed that this is the best course of action to achieve our objectives in Iraq." Warner wasn't satisfied. "Does that make America safer?" he repeated. Petraeus, looking at this late hour tired and raw, finally faltered: "Sir, I don't know actually. I have not sat down and sorted out in my own mind."

He may as well have begged, "Please, senator, I am only a man." And that he is. If David Petraeus is recusing himself from the question, "does this make America safer," then what do we care for his testimony? After all, the broader war we're fighting is not the global "War on Terror" or the surge in Iraq, but the war to make America safer. And Petraeus is advising us to look elsewhere for the answer to that question. Which makes his advice on Iraq next to useless. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_dispensable_man

[madrchsod]

1. to many people are blaming the messenger

why would anyone get all worked up over what he said or did`t say. it should have been obvious he has`t a clue on what to do next because he`s not in charge of policy and he does what he is told. as long as bush can hide behind his messenger he knows he`ll never be held accountable.