We now learn that General David Petraeus fancies himself a Dwight Eisenhower for the 21st century.
According to a report in London's Independent newspaper by the reliable Middle East observer Patrick Cockburn, the U.S. military viceroy in Iraq would like very much to return from his mission and -- like the Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe during World War II and of North Atlantic Treaty Organization in its aftermath -- mount a bid for the White House.
Petraeus has apparently been so open in expressing his "long-term interest in running for the US presidency" that Sabah Khadim, a former senior adviser at Iraq's Interior Ministry who worked closely with the general in Baghdad, recalls, "I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, 'No, that would be too soon'."
The mouth of the good soldier,
The stern jaw of the general,
The small particles of human dust
That move between them;
Better things than war
To the rotten film of floating flesh.
The bastard truth, in its last throes,
Had no teeth to gnaw at death
To release its harrowed grip,
And deceit had honed its razors
Slicing truth to its mortal nub,
Veracity fell out the bloody center
Uncorking the gushing liquid
now thickly oozing out of man.
This that moves us and machine
Is what drives the engine of betrayal.
It is not man.
It is not beast.
It is not breath.
At birth we suckle its oily nipple
Until we desire it more than food-
This; our liquid birth of machinery.
It is with that in mind and nothing else
That the stern jawed general let loose his guns.
With precision, from years of training,
He nailed his target, truth, between the eyes
And it fell back calling out a futile "help,"
But rescue would not be forthcoming,
It too had been felled.
Death stands now before them both
And places his fluttering lips close,
“Come. Join me now. You shall see
the horror within the mortal’s eyes
when, in the dark, you greet them.”
© 2007 mrp/thepoetryman
Betrayus ad infuriates some
Petraeus... or just a good soldier?
The leading US military commander in Iraq has told US senators that Baghdad could be secured with less than the 21,500 extra troops being sent as part of a new strategy to end the sectarian violence.General George Casey also denied that US policy had failed in Iraq despite heavy criticism from the Armed Services Committee.
Casey told the committee on Thursday that he had recommended just two additional brigades would be needed for the Iraq capital, rather than the five brigades that have been ordered to Iraq as part of George Bush's new plan.
The new strategy will see more than 21,500 soldiers added to the 138,000-strong US force in Iraq and deployed mainly in Baghdad.
At Least 62 Killed in Iraqi Violence
By ROBERT H. REID Associated Press Writer
A pair of suicide bombers detonated explosives Thursday among shoppers in a crowded outdoor market in a Shiite city south of Baghdad, killing at least 45 people and wounding 150, police said. Bombs and a mortar attack killed at least 17 others in both Shiite and Sunni areas of Baghdad.
Overall, more than 100 people were killed or found dead across the country, reflecting the ongoing wave of sectarian and insurgency bloodletting as the U.S. military gears up for a major security operation to stem the violence.
The biggest attack took place in the center of Hillah, a city about 60 miles south of Baghdad. Police and witnesses said the two bombers strolled into the Maktabat market about 6 p.m. when the area was packed with shoppers buying food for the evening meal.
Dark Clouds Gather on the Distant Horizon:
The World Awaits George W. Bush's Attack on Iran
Alexander - February 1st, 2007
Dark clouds gather on the distant horizon - their presence trumpets the undeniable reality that something sinister is coming this way. As the light of truth and reality fades from the nation's political consciousness, between the flashes of lies and deceit is seen the foreboding outline of vultures awaiting tragedy and their chance to feast on the death it is certain to deliver.
Brings neither eye nor ear toward peace?
Slings us down instead of skyward?
Hurls love into the decaying bowels?
WAR! Fetid war is bringing the world to famine!
The slender, flag-wrapped youth are starved of life
While round leaders drip and devour their stale plans
Leaving veteran men of reason drooling on themselves
To gibber-jabber-dribble maddening absurdities!
O! Goddamnit we recognize these things! We know them!
Complicity’s the pungent slope of life’s interment.
This; our indifference, coats the angels in fresh blood,
Their malleable wings dripping in dreadfulness;
They are massive, undulating and beautiful arcing things
Conjuring up the world’s looming storm.
Fetid war is bringing the world to famine!
To hell with it and all the Goddamned drooling cowards!
Come angel! Thrust thy immense wings down upon them
Smashing their dread-filled plans...
And feed the world.
The Progressive Daily Beacon