tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3835206167224853741.post8947553953453664775..comments2023-05-20T00:55:04.231-07:00Comments on Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Oscar: David Takes A DiveAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07881103048419383597noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3835206167224853741.post-38615063113799977642012-11-13T16:53:01.418-08:002012-11-13T16:53:01.418-08:00I have been harsh on David Petraeus. I have been c...<i>I have been harsh on David Petraeus. I have been cruel. I have been mean-spirited. I have been all these things because he represents everything that is wrong with our elites. He was and is a ticket punching mediocrity, an empty suite with a great PR operation. He was and is a mindless technocrat with no real soul and no real clues. He was a willing servant of a interventionist and hegemonistic policy that no longer serves the true interest of the United States.</i><br /><br />I keep thinking back to Vietnam, and the lessons we should have learned there the first time we overextended ourselves in a place most of us couldn't find on a map. One of the lessons was what we now refer to as The Powell Doctrine "You broke it. You own it.", or words to that effect. We were taught that lesson again in Iraq, after Powell helped W start a war there. Now, we're learning it yet again in Libya.<br /><br />When I worked there, there were plenty of people at DoD who could tell you what was necessary to run a country like Iraq, or at least how much effort it would involve. Unfortunately, they mostly ended up like <a href="http://www.turcopolier.typepad.com/" rel="nofollow">Pat Lang</a>, field grade officers whose careers stopped because they had a habit of telling the truth. Some of the generals I met struck me as bright people, but that thing you mention about getting a mealy-mouthed answer to important questions isn't just your imagination.<br /><br />I suppose it's too much to expect that our military leaders are better people than our political leaders, but they're not. Unfortunately, the military leaders who tell the politicians what they want to hear are all too often the ones who get ahead. David Patraeus was where he was for the same reasons Eric Holder is where he is.<br /><br />Go figure.<br />Cujo359https://www.blogger.com/profile/10385213658828021737noreply@blogger.com