The President's General

The following was written by a friend of mine and is shared here with his kind permission. I could not agree more with him. PP+

This afternoon I was listening to General Petraeus' testimony before the Senate on C-SPAN radio. At one point there was a break and the C-SPAN host began to take calls. Before his first call, he said the following (paraphrase)..."you're listening to President Bush's General, General Petraeus, and the Ambassador to Iraq testify before the Senate...."

I really couldn't believe my ears. I nearly drove off the road. At what point did our country's military become President Bush's, I wondered. At what point did President Bush receive ownership of General Petraeus? I really wondered why the host decided to call General Petraeus the "President's General." General Petraeus was confirmed, for each of his stars, and each of his positions, by the Senate. He was further confirmed, by a unanimous vote, by the current sitting Senate for his position as the Commander of the Multi-National Force-Iraq. Why was he suddenly President Bush's General? If he was anybody's General, he was the Senate's. I suppose a part of the host's problem was that he probably belongs to a growing segment of our population that has no ties, links, nor interest in anything that has to do with the military, completely unaware that our country's Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, and Airmen follow orders, not politics. If it were any other way, we'd still be fighting at Gettysburg.

We've reached a point in our political dialog that we can no longer, as a society, separate anything from politics. We look at a General testifying about his corner of the world (granted, a very, very hot corner), and assume the administration is speaking through his mouth. Though it was the policy of the administration that put General Petraeus in Iraq, it was the Senate that asked him to appear, to give his assessment of the situation. General Petraeus has only served in Iraq for three years - and I'm certain he'd rather be other places. We pretty much can't separate anything from politics; and the level of vitriol is so high today that it completely clouds our judgment, understanding, and ability to speak with one another. I'm sure many of you read about Moveon.org's advertisement in the NYTimes (full page) about "General Betray Us"...cute. What they don't understand, and what they will never understand I suppose, is that Petraeus is very much Moveon.org's General. He serves them more than they'll ever know, as much as he serves President Bush. But their complete inability to see through their hatred for anything that is remotely related to GWB, the GOP, or Rupert Murdoch neither serves them, their "constituents," nor the very goals they are trying to accomplish. And the Right has their own share of 'moveon.orgs' too. Nobody is innocent in these ridiculous times. General Petraeus is a very distinguished, accomplished, brilliant man who has been serving his country through Republican and Democratic administrations for longer than most of moveon's staffers have been living, . But today he somehow became a member of the Bush administration. I pray not.

But this isn't about General Petraeus. This is about our hatred for one another that is so deep, so galvanized, that we can neither see the forest nor the trees. This is about one Soldier's opinion that we've better get our s**t together, as a country, in the very near future, or we are going to spiral out of control and become a country of Capulets and Montegues. Ignorance about a General is one thing. But hatred for our fellow countrymen is another. I tell my children when they are frustrated, "Stop, Breathe, and Think." It's time for us to stop, breathe, think, and find our Appomattox.