Petraeus A ‘Happy’ Participant In Pentagon Spin Effort
Petraeus A ‘Happy’ Participant In Pentagon Spin Effort
The Wonk Room reports that a Pentagon document dump reveals that Gen. David Petraeus was a “happy” participant in its military analyst propaganda program, at the behest of Pentagon political appointees. When asked by Bryan Whitman, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, to contact several retired generals scheduled to appear on “several Sunday Shows” in August 2005, Petraeus wrote back:
Donald Rumsfeld’s spokesman Larry Di Rita complained to “Dave” that “some of these retired military analysts are trying to have it both ways,” by supporting generals like Petraeus but criticizing the “secdef” — Donald Rumsfeld — and “his supposed bad plans”:
In his calls, Petraeus evidently painted a rosy picture of his mission to train Iraqi forces. Many of these generals blindly trusted his word, going on TV and asserting that American troops would be able to start coming home as Iraqi forces stepped up. As Gen. Montgomery Meigs told Tim Russert on Meet the Press on August 28, 2005:
And when I ask senior Army officials who are longtime friends who aren’t going to give me a BS answer how we’re doing, “Are we winning or losing?” they’re saying, “We’re winning.”
Read the full report here.
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GREAT First hand information that BetrayUs is a hack…another freakin hack!!!
We need OUT of that damn country NOW!!
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:32 pmWill the congressional rethuglicans now issue an apology to MoveOn.org for correctly identifying General Betray Us?
Don’t worry - I’m not holding my breath.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:37 pmSheesh! Is there anything this administration WON’T polticize? Next you’ll be telling me they politicized the Endangered Species list or something…
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm“We are winning.”
I thought we had already won with Mission Accomplished.
_AIO_
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:55 pmThis sorry excuse for a senior US military officer has committed treason, in my book. I am ashamed that I was in the same military (different branch) as this slime ball.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:56 pmIf he is Dubya’s hand picked field general, he has to be a hack. That is why he is better known as Betrayus.
May 22nd, 2008 at 12:58 pmHopefully President Obama will put a stop to the overblown fast-track to the top for General Petreaus.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pmCORRECTION –
General Betrayus
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:02 pmThe illegal criminal occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq should be ended immediately. And the instigators of said illegal criminal occupations, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bush and Betrayus should be tried for their numerous war crimes.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:07 pmMcWars Says:
Hopefully President Obama will put a stop to the overblown fast-track to the top for General Petreaus.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm
______
He’s already a CINC - there’s not much farther up he can go…
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 pmIf anybody is still working for the criminal enterprise known as the bush administration, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are the worst of the worst (loyalty to Constitution) and the best of the best (loyalty of bush). If they had any connection to the wisdom and words of the founding fathers, they would have resigned by now.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:10 pmI was for the invasion of Afghanistan initially. My opinion was that we should have gone in, captured or killed Bin Laden, rebuilt the country, then come home. If we’d done that, how much grief and misery would have been averted? Instead this Administration chose to advance their insane priorities and buttress them with lie upon lie. They dug this nation into a hole and kept grabbing shovel after shovel, destroying this nation’s crediblilty and honor. So much for Republican Values!
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pmImpeach Cheney and Bush and Save the Constitution!
Abu Ben Hussein Leporello.
This is a very good example of how one should not simply trust the messenger but should instead carefully examine what he or she is saying. Many of these so-called military experts believed Rumsfeld and Petraeus to be telling the truth without ever thinking, apparently, that they were being given the propaganda that the Bush administration wanted them to hear. This is very similar to people automatically believing that Obama is an agent of hope and change without bothering to look at the stance that he has taken on the issues or automatically believing that American troops should somehow be considered to be “heroes” without ever examining why soldiers illegally occupying Iraq and Afghanistan should be thought of as doing something heroic. As it is almost always the case, the devil is in the details.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:51 pm.
He’s not called BETRAY-us for nothing. When can we call him a partisan hack? A Pentagon Propagandist?
.
May 22nd, 2008 at 1:58 pmTalk about a “suk-up” (mispelled on purpose). He must be hoping for a HUGE promotion to want to keep endangering the lives of our military in an illegal war.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:04 pmToasterhead — He’s already a CINC - there’s not much farther up he can go…
Good afternoon, TP friend!
Sorry for the late response. If the Bush administration were to continue into the next term, or if McCain were to be elected president, I know their intent would be to plop Betrayus into the Chairman or VCJCS role. VCSs are usually selected from a short list of combatant commanders.
But you are right, there’s not much farther he could go. It’s already too late.
P.S.– I do wonder how you manage to keep up with commenting substantively here, managing the watch sites, and managing the rest of your daily activities. I commend you on your energetic contributions and multi-tasking ability!
Sorry if you don’t get around to reading this..
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:31 pmSo when the good General was up on the Hill spouting the Administration’s talking points, with the hindsight that he was a willing lemming in the propoganda program, are we supposed to actually believe ANYTHING that he said? Can we bring BetrayUS back up the Hill and ask him directly about this? President Obama should issue this slack-jawed boot licker a dishonorable discharge from the military and strip him of all his benefits for being a traitor to the people of this Nation in a time of war, lyeing to Congress and abetting the Administration in allowing soldiers in harms way, giving up their precious lives for Bush’s war for oil.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm