McCain supports this promotion, and it will be important to note whether or not the two leading dem candidates support it, too. I will be very disappointed if they do.
ASS-KISSING LITTLE CHICKENSHIT PROMOTED TO HEAD U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND
What the Petraeus Promotion Means
TIME MAGAZINE
By Mark Thompson/Washington
Defense Secretary Robert Gates's announcement Wednesday promoting General David Petraeus from his current post running the war in Iraq to head up U.S. Central Command triggered both political and military unease. That response may be inevitable, coming on the downside of an unpopular war and in the waning months of the tenure of the unpopular President who launched it.
While Republicans hailed the news that Petraeus — who implemented the "surge" of 30,000 additional U.S. troops into Iraq, which is seen has having tamped down violence — was moving up the chain of command, Democrats were cooler. Opponents of the war fear that if the Democrat-led Senate approves Petraeus's promotion, it could be taken as a signal to "stay the course" in a war that has dragged on for more than five years and has killed more than 4,000 U.S. troops.
. . . John McCain hailed Petraeus' nomination, calling him "one of the great generals in American history."
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The other thing the promotion means of course, is that moderation is out and Iran policy is in (as the Bush-Cheney threat mandates) at the Pentagon. There are, apparently, only so many battles Bob Gates is willing to fight as Secretary of Defense. For his part, he has brought a degree of trustworthiness, if not the independence some would wish, to a shattered Rumsfeld military.
The other other thing that stings the conscience of men who still have one, is the moving of an 'ass-kissing little chickenshit' into the seat of the very man who tagged him with that distinction, Admiral William Fallon. With the unforgiving intensity that defines small-minded men, George Bush must be wriggling with glee at having so thoroughly soaked a flag officer in the flammable energy of his honor as an officer and a gentleman--then lit the match.
What this means for the near-future of Iran is no more than conjecture. But the persistence with which Cheney's drive to strike Iran before leaving office hovers over the Pentagon does not bode well. Bush may have found his man.
Democrats are frozen in the headlights of a supposed landslide election that, day by day, slips further from their grip. This is a distracted nation under a good deal of stress, but its rage is transferable, from the party that lost its favor to the party that squandered its opportunity.
Not quite the accomplished fact the press might have us believe, Petraeus has been nominated by Bush to the position and must be confirmed by the Senate.
There are 100 opportunities for a Senator of conscience to put a 'hold' on this nomination and ride out the remaining months of the administration. Such a hold cannot be defeated and, if the holding Senator desires, is anonymous. That is not likely to happen and we may have an Iranian attack before November to thank for it.
