President Bush is an interesting individual. He may not be the brightest bulb or the sharpest knife, but he has managed to find a competent Secretary of Defense in Robert Gates. Robert Gates has managed to secure a residual draw down of U.S. troops while maintaining General Petraeus’ personnel needs over the foreseeable future.
What does all this mean anyway?
Well, General Petraeus will be able to carry out the Iraq campaign as he sees fit as well as be able to (in time) draw down American troops thus enabling the future administration to avoid the pressures of drastically reducing forces in the region to satisfy party loyalists. In addition, Gates’ moves will secure a legacy for President Bush where he will appear to have not passed the buck to the next administration.
All of this is provided that you ignore the fact that General Petraeus wrote a book on how to fight an insurgency and when he was put in charge of fighting an insurgency, he wasn't allowed to run things according to his own manual. I bet General Petraeus' book is not one of the christmas gift ideas that has made GW's christmas lift.
Additional Perspectives
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