David Petraeus is No War Hero
What? Not a hero. Isn’t this the General who single-handedly won the war in Iraq? Isn’t this a General who rewrote the Army Field manual for counter insurgency warfare, applied those COIN policies in Afghanistan, talked President Obama into sending an additional 60,000 troops there, and completely turned the disastrous Afghanistan war around?
According to Oliver Stone David Petraeus Created Myth of Hero General
Oliver Stone is no stranger to controversy. As the director of films such as El Salvador, Born on the Fourth of July, and Platoon, he has shown American foreign policy and American exceptionalism in an unflattering light. His criticism of David Pertraeus is simple. An examination of what the man has actually done compared to his list of accomplishments and praise bestowed upon him by the media just don’t match up.
American Media made David Petraeus a National Hero
General David Petraeus was already a 50-year-old two star General before in Iraq seeing his first combat. While David Petraeus undoubtedly is a brilliant man with leadership skills Petraeus critics call Petraeus a politician in a General’s uniform. Of course, that comment was made before David Petraeus was appointed CIA director by President Barack Obama. According to the media as CIA director Petraeus became even more of an American hero, one who could do no wrong. That is, until a sex scandal broke around him and led to his resignation.
David Petraeus Sex Scandel Shouldn’t Even be an Issue
One doesn’t become a General without being an alpha male. That fact and the alure of a General’s uniform covered with brass buttons and fruit salad should make it no surprise that a top ranked general attracts the attention of military groupie females.
The shame of it all is that the media largely gave David Petraeus a free pass regarding his performance in Iraq and Afghanistan. Actually it was much more than a free pass; Petraeus couldn’t have received more praise than if he was writing his own press releases, which very likely he was.
David Petraeus Record is Far Less Impressive than his Reported Performance
David Petraeus CIA Director
A close examination of his actual performance reveals that his so-called “success” in Iraq resulted from paying off Sunni insurgents to stop shooting at American troops and to shoot at targets selected by David Petraeus. This led to the use of death squads. While he was in command the civil war in Iraq intensified.
After being given command of American forces in Afghanistan he talked, some would say conned, President Obama into deploying 60,000 additional troops. Since the surge in 2009 conditions in Afghanistan have deteriorated further and today are a total disaster.
But why am I telling you this? View the video and see how a decorated Vietnam War veteran views matters. Oliver Stone makes the case much better than I. David Petraeus had the media eating out of his hand until the sex scandal broke. He served the nation as well as many other General’s but he, nor they, should be classified as war heroes. Other than Grenada and Panama the United States hasn’t won a war since World War II. But David Petraeus is a master politician. He even managed have his own sex scandal.
