Petraeus reborn!

?

"... he said Syrian President Bashar Assad should be told that the U.S. Air Force will sweep Syrian warplanes from the sky if Syrian aircraft drop any more “barrel bombs,” a vicious generator of refugees. “We have that capability,” he noted.

That would at long last demonstrate U.S. seriousness — something lacking for Syria ever since President Obama erased his own “red line” on the use of chemical weapons early last year.

Petraeus advocated the formation of enclaves, protected by air power, supplied with radios and perhaps U.S. advisers. The mission should be protection of Sunni Arabs from all enemies, Assad’s troops as well as the Islamic State controlling much of Syria and adjacent Iraq. To that end the United States should embed advisers with Iraqi brigade headquarters and consider deployment of U.S. tactical air controllers to direct air strikes.

It was the first appearance of Petraeus before Congress since his conviction, probationary sentence and $100,000 fine for suppling a mistress with classified documents, something for which he apologized to the committee — again. That lapse in judgment surely has not made his expertise any less useful.  Boston Herald

-----------

The Boston Herald thinks this is great thinking and wonderful advice.

It is not!  It is terrible advice, and typical of a man whose much overblown reputation rests on the illusion that somehow he "won" the war in Iraq.  In fact, he took advantage of a largely sui generis revolt on the part of Sunni Arab tribesmen against AQ.  Petraeus had the brains to seize upon this revolt as something that would make the AEI inspired "surge" of additional US troops look good.  That is what happened.

He wants to create enclaves of sanctuary in northern Syria to "protect" the Sunnis from the Syrian government?  Hey David!  The Syrian Army has many, many men in it who are Sunni Muslims.  He thinks such havens could be protected by US Air?  What planet does this man live on?  Where has air power ever sufficed to protect any large area full of civilians?  No.  Such enclaves would have to be defended on the ground and not against the Syrian military.  No, the real enemies are the jihadis.  The enclaves would have to be defended against the jihadis.  Who will do that?  Who?

He wants to destroy the Syrian Air Force?  Words fail me...  What a good idea! (irony alert)  Let us remove an anti-jihadi force from the chess board in the game being played in the ME.  What a good idea!

The Egyptian president, Sisi, today told some newsbabe that if the Syrian government falls to the jihadis, the jihadis will then destroy what is left of modernism in the ME, But, no matter, what does he know?  What does he know?

I would not be surprised to see Petraeus appointed by Obama and The Girls to take John Allen's job as apprentice savior and deputy messiah (ME) for the salvation of the R2P dream of a world where the lions and the lambs do lie down together.  Good luck, David!  The world has not become different.  If you take the job you will fail again.

If Petraeus is lucky, the final collapse of present government in Iraq and Syria will not come so soon as to block his nomination to be some Republican or Democratic candidate's VP running mate.  pl 

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/opinion/editorials/2015/09/editorial_good_advice_from_petraeus

Comments

[ex-PFC Chuck]

The Boston Herald is part of the Murdoch reality distortion field wherein black is white, truth is falsehood, etc.

[Peter]

In Apocalypse Now, the movie, Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) said " the horror " of it all.

[A. Pols]

One of the tragedies of our times is the fixation on dealing with the world as we wish it were as opposed to how it is.
"Experience keeps a dear school"

[jld]

And, of course, war is peace!
I find it somehow ominous that Thierry Meyssan predicts NO World War III because he is usually wrong on most of his predictions...
http://www.voltairenet.org/article188860.html

[Patrick Bahzad]

Gonna have to rewrite the famous "fool me once, shame on ..." into the official Petreaus version: "Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me more, shame on me" !

[William Fitzgerald]

Pat Lang,
concerning
I mentioned previously, on the post by Walrus concerning the surrendering U.S. trained rebels, that I'd read the NYT report of his statements to a congressional committee. In that testimony he presented the plans commented on by the Boston paper. I'd suggest that Petraeus is trying to "make his bones" with the neo con establishment in the hope or expectation that they'll be back in the saddle and then, who knows? Sec of State, Defense, Nat Sec. Advisor? As you pointed out, the proposals are ludicrous except to those who've been pushing those policies all along.

The President's speech to the U.N. was long on platitudes and, thus, typical of the addresses of American presidents to that body.

WPFIII

[João Carlos]

but... how Petraeus will be sure to not hit the Russia aircrafts when he hit the Syria aircrafts?

Third World War soon?

[Fred]

If the Great Captain (Petraeus) needs an enclave I recommend the Golan Heights. It's sparsely populated, defended by the IDF and best of all part of Syria.

[Jay McAnally]

In his farewell an earlier “Caesar,” Douglas McArthur said
”…I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barrack ballads ... which proclaimed most proudly that ‘old soldiers never die; they just fade away.’

And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty.”

One wishes that “Caesar” Petraeus would follow that advice…

[Vim]

Putin's speech at the UNGA all but accused the US and its allies of abetting and instrumentalizing the jihadists in Syria against the government. He mentioned the money and arms flows that the US and its allies are not confronting because the want the jihadists to defeat the Syrian government first. Didn't lay out any military plans specifically, but alluded that Russia would pursue a UNSC resolution and a development and reconstruction plan to follow the conflict.

[Babak Makkinejad]

I think this is still all about containing Iran.

See below please:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/09/24/a-strategy-to-push-back-iran-in-syria.html

[SteveG]

One is reminded of (64) "Seven Days in May."
Gen. James Mattoon Scott testified as possible
candidate he too would right the world. Where
is Col. Martin "Jiggs" Casey when we need him?
Coup anyone!

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

Wiser heads than me said that an unstated purpose of the West’s seizure of Ukraine was to draw Russia directly into the civil war in Donbass. Russia avoided this but now is an active party in the Syrian civil war. What changed the calculation?
1) Jihadists are a threat to everyone.
2) Europe is on the verge of collapse.

Due to austerity and hollowing out of the power of sovereign states, Greece is unable to seal its borders and refugees found a path directly to the heart of the EU. Millions more will make this trek unless the borders are secured and peace returns to the Middle East.

Russia is in Syria to encircle the Islamic State and to split Europe out of the American Empire.

Enclaves can be fortified and defended by minority Christian, Shiite, Alawite and Kurd militias if supported by Close Air Support. The Sunnis in Northern Iraq have been at war for 25 years and 4 years in Syria. Four million people have fled Syria, two million from Iraq. All that are left are hardened true believers. The difficult question is how to establish safe enclaves so that the Sunni refugees can return home if not protected by the Syrian Army and a peace treaty with those groups unwilling to be subservient to the Caliphate.

If the Islamic State is a proxy army used to destabilize Russia, chaos will engulf Eurasia. Don’t the neo-cons see this or are they so intent on destabilizing their ancient enemy, Russia, that they are they willing to risk World War III over Syria?

[Ishmael Zechariah]

PB,
How can such a dishonorable SOB be appointed to provide policy determining the fates of millions? And I am not talking about his peccadillo(s)!

Ishmael Zechariah

P.s: You might enjoy the following, even though it brings to mind motes and beams. A Brit sent it to me today,

Subject: Message from the Queen...

To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your failure in recent years to nominate competent candidates for President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately.

(You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.
6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. South African beer is also acceptable, as they are pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the South Africans first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

[Medicine Man]

If Petraeus is rehabilitated and returns to influence it will another example of how the political elites have tried to immunize themselves from all consequences for their actions. Absurdity.

[walrus]

Petreaus is "trailing his coat" past the Three players who currently run American ME policy. The Israelis, who would invade Lebanon again via the Bekaa were it not for the Syria Army, the military industrial Neocons for whom war is good business, and the R2P crowd who, like almost all academics, secretly lust for power, influence and a tenured chair at a wealthy ivy league University.

Petreaus, as I suspected many years ago is a dyed in the wool narcissist with no scruples for whom the destruction and misery of a few million more Arabs is immaterial.

Yes, Col. Lang is right. Petreaus reborn. Is he "resurrected' enough to stand for VP this time around? Can't you see him on stage with Carly Fiorina? I could.

In News Limited publications, nothing politically significant happens without Rupert Murdochs personal approval. Trust me on this. WIth the Murdoch empire behind him, Petreaus is going to be very hard to stop.

[ex-PFC Chuck]

re "Wiser heads than me said that an unstated purpose of the West’s seizure of Ukraine was to draw Russia directly into the civil war in Donbass. Russia avoided this but now is an active party in the Syrian civil war. What changed the calculation?"

A piece two days ago at Fort Russ address this very question in considerable detail:
http://fortruss.blogspot.com/2015/09/why-will-russia-save-syria-but-not.html

[William Fitzgerald]

Babak,

Quite right, if one assumes that Iran must be contained and that thst should be the aim of U.S. foreign policy. I think Petraeus's motive is to get himself back in the game.

WPFIII

[Nightsticker]

This could be exquisitely horrible/droll.
Imagine the justifiably bitter 200lb wife sitting in
some dreadful 4th rate inner city college
auditorium sitting across from the idiotically
smug concubine. It could be his punishment
on Earth for his sins.

Nightsticker

[SteveG]

VV
Winter is the determining factor.
Temp of the Med will be the
factor.

[robt willmann]

Walrus,

I do not think that Petraeus will be anyone's vice presidential running mate. In the "factual basis" for his plea agreement on the misdemeanor charge, they (the Justice Dept.) put in there, and made him admit to, making false statements to the FBI, although they did not charge him with that offense. The only reason for doing that was to try to insure that he does not run for public office. In the factual basis, on pages 12 and 13 (pdf pages 19-20), in paragraphs 31 and 32, this is laid out--

http://www.ncwd.uscourts.gov/sites/default/files/general/Petraeus.pdf

A rumor is that some of the same FBI agents who were involved in the Petraeus prosecution are working on the Hillary Clinton e-mail matter, as well as at least one of the federal prosecutors who was in on the Petraeus case. David Kendall of the Williams & Connolly firm, who represented Bill Clinton, represented Petraeus and is now the attorney for Hillary in the pending investigation.

[gemini33]

That's one of the most insane articles I've ever read on what we should do in Syria and the Middle East. Unfortunately, it seems also to be an honest assessment of what the neocon thinking is too. What a bloody mess.

We'd be crazy to start a war with Iran in Syria just to babysit the region for our "frightened" allies. I don't buy their fear that Iran will become the aggressor. I think the real situation is that 1) they themselves want to be the aggressors whenever they feel like it, with impunity, knowing that big brother US will protect them, and 2) they've been committing atrocities for decades and they're afraid there will be blowback that they can't prevent on their own even though they have weapons galore, mercs, etc.

[gemini33]

"The mission should be protection of Sunni Arabs from all enemies"

Even if that was possible - create these enclaves of protected Sunnis, and then what?

I saw part of that Petraeus hearing. Watching him and those armchair senators is terrifying. And as embarrassing as all hell.

[LeaNder]

Horrible document:
"...but does not mitigate the pre-existing problem of Iranian efforts to overturn the regional status quo by force, terrorism, insurgency, and other unsavory methods."

But then, would the books of this experts give us further insight in the basis of his statements above, beyond its support for Hezbollah and quite possibly other Palestinian groups? Insurgency?

******
How by the way, not necessarily from the obvious historical religious perspective, did the enmity between the Saudis and Iran develop post 1979?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%E2%80%93Saudi_Arabia_relations

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arab_League%E2%80%93Iran_relations#Bilateral_relations_with_Iran

Ok, I'll look into this.

[LeaNder]

Enjoyed it, some items very, very much. ;)

****

Since this is an article about Petraeus and his strategical military excellence, would you mind to tell your friend there is another item he should add.

16, even before being firmly comfortable with 4 o'clock tea, they have to accept that neither they or their respective foreign friends look for any honors are allowed to ask for any state honors without the Queens consent: (give the link a second before it takes you there.

http://tinyurl.com/German-honors

Scroll down to Foreign state decorations. Maybe the queen has the highest, but I didn't check. In any case he seems to have a quite a bit of PR support. ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Petraeus#Recognitions_and_honors

scroll down to Foreign state decorations.

Interesting though. Would it be possible to find out who suggested him in 2012?

"Military historians have noted the absence of field records for the Iraq and Afghanistan military campaigns, but have not personally been critical of the commanders in theater.[194] One additional aspect of Petraeus's career that has come under increased scrutiny since his affair came to light has been his lack of a direct combat record in relation to the many awards he received. In particular, his Bronze Star Medal with Valor device has been mentioned in several media reports and questioned by several former Army officers.[195] The citation for Petraeus's Bronze Star w/"V" device also notes his "leadership under fire", and the award of the Combat Action Badge reflects the same."