Been watching you around FR, and I must say I am impressed with your compassionate Machiavellianism.
Your thoughts on Petraus?
I don’t have any bad opinions of Gen. Petreus. I just have a hard time trusting any high ranking officers but that is from my own experiences. In my experience, it is a commonly held belief among enlisted and lower ranking officers that once an officer makes colonel and above, he becomes more of a politician than someone looking out for those he is commanding. (Not all, but many). Once they start to spend more and more of their time with senators, their loyalties and priorities seem to change. They start to become more like them.
I mean, what he is supposed to say and do? I imagine it would be awfully hard to butt heads with politicians that can damage your career if you don’t go along with one of the main two alliances already established in Washington. How can someone in his position be brutally honest if he does disagree and also cares about his career? Look where it got Rumsfeld.