The biggest thing in the news is watching this General McChrystal thing play out and seeing the facts slowly come to the top. It seems there are two wars being fought simultaneously in Afghanistan, one political and one shooting. Although McChrystal apparently did himself in to a great extent via his comments to Rolling Stone, he was originally programmed to fail by Karl W. Eikenberry, a predecessor in Afghanistan and now ambassador to that nation.
When Eikenberry left Afghanistan it seems he leaked two memos to the press. One said he thought a troop buildup would hurt the U.S. by making the Afghans too dependent on us. The other was in a similar vein designed to cover his tail when the whole eventual U.S. plan fell apart. In that regard, one of his strongest allies was Joe Biden. However, when the troop buildup seemed to be helping, he pulled in his horns, preferring to work in the background.
Looking at all of this, I realized that sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in, but sooner or later, even I can figure them out. Because, while this whole to-do about General McChrystal has had me and everyone else focused on Afghanistan, the real war’s going to be in the United States on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 when America goes to the polls to elect a new President.
The way things look right now, Obama’s going to go down in flames that will probably be seen as far away as Pluto. And Biden’s an unelectable dunce beyond hope. So, who else can the Dem’s put up? Hillary? Forget it. That beat up, old retread hasn’t a prayer. So that leaves a wide open door for the Republicans to run a slam-dunk winner – General David H. Petraeus. Because, right now, what the U.S. needs above all is an expert in national defense, international affairs and anti-terrorism. The rest of the Republican party will correct the immigration fiasco and our economics.
Just look at his credentials. Born November 7, 1952, he’s only 58 years old. But here’s what he’s done so far:
*United States Army general and current Commander of the United States Central Command.
*Previously served as Commanding General of Multi-National Force in Iraq. January, 2007 to September, 2008, overseeing all coalition forces in Iraq.
*BS from the United States Military Academy, graduating in 1974 as a distinguished cadet in the top 5% of his class.
*General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate of the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College class of 1983.
*Earned M.P.A. in 1985 and a Ph.D. in International Relations in 1987 from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton.
*Served as Assistant Professor of International Relations at the United States Military Academy and also completed a fellowship at Georgetown University.
So, academically, militarily and intellectually this guy’s exactly the kind of guy the U.S. needs right now. And, politically he’s a genius. He’s just become the commander of all armed forces in Afghanistan, replacing McChrystal to boot, and done so without a whimper of dissension so far. And as far as Congressional confirmation goes, that should be a slam dunk because he testifies every couple of months and the Armed Services Committee loves him.
The only potential weakness is his gruffness towards Israel, but that may have been simply “following orders” from the White House like a good soldier’s supposed to. If not, the Israeli’s are still better off with him than they are with Obama or Hillary.
Now I realize that my prediction is early, and two years is still a while away. But. I just wanted to go on record, because I think the scenario makes absolute political sense. And just to add some icing to that cake by showing how little Obama and his friends know about the military and weapons, I think with Petraeus’ promotion, the president just shot himself in the foot.
If you want to see his career try Wikipedia, I think you'll find it remarkably impressive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus (Sorry-you have to copy and paste)
That's it for today folks.
Adios
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