Iraqi Official: Gen. Petraeus says he has presidential ambitions

[JohnyCanuck]

President Petraeus? Iraqi official recalls the day US general revealed ambition

By Patrick Cockburn
Thursday, 13 September 2007

The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.

Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq's Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.

"I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, 'No, that would be too soon'," Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said.

General Petraeus has a reputation in the US Army for being a man of great ambition. If he succeeds in reversing America's apparent failure in Iraq, he would be a natural candidate for the White House in the presidential election in 2012.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/president-petraeus-iraqi-official-recalls-the-day-us-general-revealed-ambition-402195.html

[colonel odis]

1. surely not in american politics.

[panader0]

2. President of Iraq!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Eisenhower redux?

I think not!

My god, the nerve of the guy...

No way in HELL would I ever vote for him....under any circumstances...

:grr:

[NJSecularist]

4. Not suprising. The Rethugs have been grooming him for 2012 or 2016 for a while.

With the way the media fellates Petraeus, you might as well give him the presidency.

[PoiBoy]

5. He's a natural candidate...

...for the war crimes trials that will take place in The Hague....

[ReadTomPaine]

6. To anyone who's been following this man's military careerism, it should come as no surprise...

his ambitions have been as plain as the nose on his face.

[PA Democrat]

7. Nice to know that the soldiers on the ground in Iraq are being used as pawns in his presidential

ambitions. I guess he will be reluctant to pull out even though it doesn't look like anything resembling "success" is possible in Iraq, because it would interfere with his political game plan. :grr:

[GoesTo11]

8. Unlikely

Ike had WWII, and the country pretty much agreed that went well.
Norman Schwarzkopf & Colin Powell had IWR-1 and the country pretty much agreed that went well.
It's hard to what could happen now that would be so good as to get people jazzed about the current Gen., even if he ends up with a better than expected outcome.

[L. Coyote]

9. VP 2008 ?? McBush/BetrayUS