Lucian Truscott IV doesn't think much of Petraeus

[Oldguy]

Or, the rest of our senior officer corps either.

I think he's right on target. They're very good at self promotion and looking like generals, but short on the skills needed to actually win wars. Military prowess takes a back seat to pandering and manipulation.

He says this about Petraeus:

"...He wasn’t the military magician portrayed in the press; he was a self-constructed hologram, emitting an aura of preening heroism for the ever eager cameras..."

And, this about senior commanders:

"...But we still shouldn’t allow our military establishment to give us one generation after another of imitation generals who pretend to greatness on talk shows and photo spreads, jetting around the world in military-spec business jets.

The generals who won World War II were the kind of men who, as it was said at the time, chewed nails for breakfast, spit tacks at lunch and picked their teeth with their pistol barrels. General Petraeus probably flosses. He didn’t chew nails and spit tacks, but rather challenged privates to push-up contests and went out on five-mile reveille runs with biographers..."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/o....html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20121118

 

[JoeB131]

Or, the rest of our senior officer corps either.

I think he's right on target. They're very good at self promotion and looking like generals, but short on the skills needed to actually win wars. Military prowess takes a back seat to pandering and manipulation.

He says this about Petraeus:

"...He wasn’t the military magician portrayed in the press; he was a self-constructed hologram, emitting an aura of preening heroism for the ever eager cameras..."

And, this about senior commanders:

"...But we still shouldn’t allow our military establishment to give us one generation after another of imitation generals who pretend to greatness on talk shows and photo spreads, jetting around the world in military-spec business jets.

The generals who won World War II were the kind of men who, as it was said at the time, chewed nails for breakfast, spit tacks at lunch and picked their teeth with their pistol barrels. General Petraeus probably flosses. He didn’t chew nails and spit tacks, but rather challenged privates to push-up contests and went out on five-mile reveille runs with biographers..."

A Phony Hero for a Phony War - NYTimes.com

Not really.

Frankly, the Generals in WWII were just as conscious about their public images as their modern counterparts. Perhaps more so, which is why we remember the more flamboyant ones (MacArthur, Ike, Patton).

Ike and Patton both had mistresses, but back in the oldie days, people didn't talk about that sort of thing.

I also give Petreaus credit. Yes, he might have been a bit too self-promoting, but his strategy in Iraq worked compared to whatever the hell it was Sanchez was doing that just made matters worse.