[444Flyer]

“If Petraeus needs to be confirmed, then he ought to keep his intentions private until he is in theater.”

Then again, Petraeus may be putting the fear of God into the minds of our enemies over there. And he's backing our troops in their mission.

6/25/10

“Islamist websites: McChrystal fired because Afghan war is lost”

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/06/25/islamist.websites.afghanistan/index.html?eref=rss_latest&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rss%2Fcnn_latest+%28RSS%3A+Most+Recent%29

Petraeus might be sending a message from America to our enemies:

“Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.”

He isn't leaving our troops dangling in the wind in theatre during the leadership interim by leaking this out. He's stabilizing morale so it won't plummet. And hopefully, he's sending a message he means business.

[Defiant]

See post 95.

I would add that if he is concerned about troop morale and about Islamist website propaganda, he can say and do things in his confirmation process that in no way conflict with my advice that he be vague about ROE and other tactical issues until he is in theater. He can, for example, say something like, he has experience turning around a situation, and he will do what it takes to do the same in Afghanistan. He can point out that Al Qaida in Iraq thought the same thing in 2006. Things like that.