To reach the rank of general you have to be part politician, it has always been that way. A good general is always a general first and a politician second. Those who had been generals first have over the last six years have been driven from the service by Donald Rumsfeld and the Bush administration. What we have left are men like General Petraeus. Not only a politician but a political hack. We know what he’s going to say in September because he said it all yesterday on wingnut radio, The Hugh Hewitt Show. On cue from Hugh he recited all the administration/neocon talking points. Glenn Greenwald does a good job of documenting how General Petraeus has been talking the neocon/administration talking points on Iraq from day one and not unlike William Kristol has been proven wrong over and over again. But in the media Petraeus is still sold as the brilliant saviour of Bush’s failed occupation of Iraq.

As has been clear for months, the White House has increasingly incorporated media and communications strategies into the highest levels of the U.S. military command in Iraq. Just last month, the White House moved one of Bush’s own aides into the position of Chief Spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq, and the military’s claims about Iraq have increasingly matched White House political aims. The rhetoric from all top military commanders, including Petraeus — one could say especially him — reflects White House talking points without deviation.

Especially now that it has become clear that this Grand September Report will occur, putting the comments of Gen. Petraeus into their proper perspective is imperative, as is treating them realistically, with the understanding that he has a history of making almost uniformly optimistic claims about Iraq, even when the reality in Iraq was anything but encouraging.

On every issue in the Hewitt interview — from “Iran-Al Qaeda cooperation” to accusations against Syria for sending in foreign fighters (with no mention of Saudi Arabia) and the primacy of Al Qaeda as the threat in Iraq — Petraeus recites highly political propositions in complete harmony with the White House and neoconservatives. Petreaus is a highly political figure, plainly cognizant of the need to sell his war to the American public, and his statements, consequently, are highly political as well. That is not unusual for a military commander.

But to listen to the media references to Gen. Petraeus, one would think that he is the sole figure who resides above the political realm, the sole source for objective and credible accounts of what is happening “on the ground” in Iraq. Like most of what our government and its media has claimed over the last four years with regard to Iraq, that is pure caricature, actually just rank fiction.

Just as in the lead up to the invasion and occupation the media is playing along with the Bush administration to extend the debacle in Mesopotamia.

***

Thanks to our friends at QandO who rip us bigtime on this post -

Update:

I find it ammusing that folks at QandO and the others on the right accuse us of questioning the credibilty of Gen. Petraeus. I’m sorry but the general has done that all by himself by saying little that wasn’t administration spin and being proved wrong over and over again. His appearance on the Hewitt spin machine was just icing on the cake.

Hugh Hewitt FIRES BACK; both barrels a-blazin’, WOW… -

Thanks also to Liberty Street for linking in (great analysis there, by the way) -

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