Air Force Community - Air Force Times

Petraeus’ report should be first step out of Iraq

A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in early August shows that 32 percent of Americans have never heard of the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, or hold no opinion of him.

The poll also shows 47 percent of Americans rate Petraeus favorably, 21 percent unfavorably.

In certain quarters, Petraeus has been accorded veritable sainthood.

“I thought he was one of the most famous men in the world,” one airman told me.

Petraeus appears to be a fine officer. But none of America’s generals today can hold a candle to the great wartime commanders of our past like George Washington, Robert E. Lee and George C. Marshall.

During the week Air Force Times published the poll about Petraeus [“Fast facts,” Frontlines, Aug. 27], there were these developments:

• An American soldier died in a firefight between rival Iraqi Shiite militias. None of the shooters was a terrorist. None threatened the U.S.

• President Bush gave a convoluted speech to veterans comparing any withdrawal from Iraq to our pullout from Vietnam. The president’s historical point was confusing at best.

• Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a leader respected in both parties, called on Bush to announce at least a token withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a regional U.S. commander there, said any reduction would be “a giant step backward.”

Petraeus’ low recognition score, Lynch’s tone deafness and Bush’s questionable example in military history all point to the ever-widening gulf between the growing number of Americans who want the war in Iraq to end and those who resist any drawdown.

It’s not a rift between civilians and military members, or between conservatives and liberals, or even between those who’ve been to Iraq and those who haven’t.

From mainstream opinion pages to Internet chat rooms, most Americans are now saying we’ve lost our way in Iraq. One poll suggests that a small majority of active-duty military members believe we should leave. Too many Americans are dying, not in fights with terrorists but amid clashes between Iraqi factions competing for clout within their own country.

Not even the group calling itself al-Qaida in Mesopotamia, identified by the administration as “al-Qaida in Iraq,” wants to “follow us home,” as some warn. The real al-Qaida isn’t in Iraq. It is prospering in Pakistan and other nominally friendly countries. Most of the Sept. 11, 2001, airline hijackers were Saudis.

So why isn’t Petraeus better known? Said a recently retired Army colonel: “It’s inconceivable that in 1944, when there was no television or Internet, 32 percent of the population would have said they hadn’t heard of Dwight Eisenhower.” The colonel’s conclusion: “Most Americans have no stake in what happens in Iraq.”

Another veteran, being callous but accurate, said that while the White House is planning a wedding between young adults who’ve never seen a recruiting office, the few Americans with a stake in Iraq are holding funerals for some who have.

Petraeus’ report on conditions in Iraq, expected in mid-September, is breathlessly awaited in Washington and in military circles. I hope he will say the obvious. Our troops have given all they can. Some have given all, period. It is time for the Iraqis to take care of themselves and for Americans to shift their focus back to those who attacked us on Sept. 11, 2001.

The writer, an Air Force veteran, lives in Oakton, Va. He is the author of “Air Combat,” a history of fighter pilots. His e-mail address is robert.f.dorr@cox.net.