I’m definitely not a fan of Gen. David Petreaus, who arguably should be a convicted felon rather than a self-confessed misdemeanorist, but he definitely merits a thumbs up from all thirteen of us in the “Let’s stay out of the damn Middle East” crowd, when he said publicly that sending U.S. troops to clean up Syria would not work. If order in Syria is to be restored—and the general acknowledged that that is a pretty big if—“you need to have a hold force that has legitimacy in the eyes of people that has to be Sunni Arab forces.” Petreaus made the comments in a television interview with Charlie Rose, reports Nick Gass in Politico.
General Petreaus gave stacks of highly classified materials to his biographer/sex kitten Paula Broadwell and then lied to the FBI about it. A lot of people who have committed either offense have gone to jail as convicted felons, but Attorney General Eric Holder’s Justice Department dropped the second charge, allowed Petreaus to plead guilty to a misdemeanor rather than a felony, and recommended probation rather than prison. Sweet are the uses of shameless political favoritism, I guess.
