Could this be the reason the Moveon.org ad drew such sharp rebuke from certain dunces in Congress?
President Petraeus? Iraqi official recalls the day US general revealed ambition
By Patrick Cockburn
Published: 13 September 2007
The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.
Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq’s Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05.
“I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, ‘No, that would be too soon’,” Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said.
General Petraeus has a reputation in the US Army for being a man of great ambition. If he succeeds in reversing America’s apparent failure in Iraq, he would be a natural candidate for the White House in the presidential election in 2012.
His able defence of the “surge” in US troop numbers in Iraq as a success before Congress this week has made him the best-known soldier in America. An articulate, intelligent and energetic man, he has always shown skill in managing the media.
But General Petraeus’s open interest in the presidency may lead critics to suggest that his own political ambitions have influenced him in putting an optimistic gloss on the US military position in Iraq.
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May I offer General Petraeus a few hints
by displaying samples of what not to do.
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Never say things you can’t prove with another lie.
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Don’t allow CENTCOM Commander, Admiral William Fallon, to define you.
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Images: (Jon Gnagy) Real Life Magazine via home.att.net; (Landon) IAACF via the-forum-ltd.com via gwu.edu; (Dewey) trumanlibrary.org; (Adlai) us.history.wisc.edu; (Hayseed) (press conference) Ali Abbas/The Associated Press via armytimes.com;(at store) blackfive.net; (Thumb) cf (W) via drinkingliberally.org;