Admiral William Fallon (commander of Centcom) on General Petraeus in March 2007 - "an ass-kissing little chicken-shit".
The architects of Iraq
Tareq Y Ismael
A potentially decisive season of hearings and discussions about the performance and future of United States forces in Iraq has come to a provisional conclusion with the Congressional testimony of the US's two leading players in Baghdad: military commander General David H Petraeus and ambassador Ryan Crocker. But any expectation that their or their predecessors' reports assessing the progress of the military "surge" and its accompanying political efforts has proved futile. Instead, Washington - and United States political discourse about Iraq more generally - sleepwalks (see Gideon Rachman, "Many contenders but just one voice", Financial Times, 18 September 2007).
General David H Petraeus is an ambitious, intelligent officer who holds a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University. His first combat mission was the Iraqi invasion in 2003, where he served as the commander of the 101st airborne division. In post-invasion Iraq, General Petraeus has been charged with three roles, each ending in debacle.
First, he was responsible for ensuring stability by recruiting and training the local police force in Mosul. After his efforts had been deemed successful, he left Mosul in February 2004. In November 2004, insurgents had captured most of the city; 7,000 police recruited by General Petraeus either changed sides or simply went home; thirty police stations were captured; 11,000 assault rifles and other military equipment worth $41 million disappeared; and Iraqi army units abandoned their bases (see Patrick Cockburn, "General Surge", Independent, 9 September 2007).
His second role, which began in May 2004, was training a new national Iraqi army, of which he wrote confidently four months later: "Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being re-established" (see Patrick Cockburn, "President Petraeus?", Independent, 13 September, 2007). Three years later his trained Iraqi army is still inadequate and is affected by various levels of sectarianism and corruption.
Third, Petraeus was charged with being the executor and the public face of the "surge" policy, launched in February 2007 (see Tom Engelhardt, "Launching Brand Petraeus", TomDispatch, 9 September 2007). This reflected the narrowing of US strategic goals from those proclaimed by President Bush in November 2005, when he defined victory in Iraq according to a set of short, medium, and long-term goals (the short-term goals included "meeting political milestones; building democratic institutions; standing up robust security forces to gather intelligence, destroy terrorist networks, and maintain security; and tackling key economic reforms to lay the foundation for a sound economy" (see White House, National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, 30 November 2005).
The mismatch between the fantasies of US progress in Iraq and the realities on the ground suggests that the mindset ruling the strategy is impervious indeed. It recalls a remark directed at General Petraeus by his superior, Admiral William Fallon (commander of Centcom) in their final meeting in Baghdad, in March 2007 - "an ass-kissing little chicken-shit" (see Gareth Porter, "US-Iraq: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge", Interpress Service, 12 September 2007). It is in these unguarded soldiering words that the most unvarnished assessment of the ethos that animates Washington's latest pronouncements on Iraq may lie...[Open in new window]
The architects of Iraq
Tareq Y Ismael
A potentially decisive season of hearings and discussions about the performance and future of United States forces in Iraq has come to a provisional conclusion with the Congressional testimony of the US's two leading players in Baghdad: military commander General David H Petraeus and ambassador Ryan Crocker. But any expectation that their or their predecessors' reports assessing the progress of the military "surge" and its accompanying political efforts has proved futile. Instead, Washington - and United States political discourse about Iraq more generally - sleepwalks (see Gideon Rachman, "Many contenders but just one voice", Financial Times, 18 September 2007).
General David H Petraeus is an ambitious, intelligent officer who holds a doctorate in international relations from Princeton University. His first combat mission was the Iraqi invasion in 2003, where he served as the commander of the 101st airborne division. In post-invasion Iraq, General Petraeus has been charged with three roles, each ending in debacle.
First, he was responsible for ensuring stability by recruiting and training the local police force in Mosul. After his efforts had been deemed successful, he left Mosul in February 2004. In November 2004, insurgents had captured most of the city; 7,000 police recruited by General Petraeus either changed sides or simply went home; thirty police stations were captured; 11,000 assault rifles and other military equipment worth $41 million disappeared; and Iraqi army units abandoned their bases (see Patrick Cockburn, "General Surge", Independent, 9 September 2007).
His second role, which began in May 2004, was training a new national Iraqi army, of which he wrote confidently four months later: "Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being re-established" (see Patrick Cockburn, "President Petraeus?", Independent, 13 September, 2007). Three years later his trained Iraqi army is still inadequate and is affected by various levels of sectarianism and corruption.
Third, Petraeus was charged with being the executor and the public face of the "surge" policy, launched in February 2007 (see Tom Engelhardt, "Launching Brand Petraeus", TomDispatch, 9 September 2007). This reflected the narrowing of US strategic goals from those proclaimed by President Bush in November 2005, when he defined victory in Iraq according to a set of short, medium, and long-term goals (the short-term goals included "meeting political milestones; building democratic institutions; standing up robust security forces to gather intelligence, destroy terrorist networks, and maintain security; and tackling key economic reforms to lay the foundation for a sound economy" (see White House, National Strategy for Victory in Iraq, 30 November 2005).
The mismatch between the fantasies of US progress in Iraq and the realities on the ground suggests that the mindset ruling the strategy is impervious indeed. It recalls a remark directed at General Petraeus by his superior, Admiral William Fallon (commander of Centcom) in their final meeting in Baghdad, in March 2007 - "an ass-kissing little chicken-shit" (see Gareth Porter, "US-Iraq: Fallon Derided Petraeus, Opposed the Surge", Interpress Service, 12 September 2007). It is in these unguarded soldiering words that the most unvarnished assessment of the ethos that animates Washington's latest pronouncements on Iraq may lie...[Open in new window]
posted by Dan at 9:11 AM
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