'Your papers, please' must never be heard in America
Independent voices from the TWT Communities
In less than three years, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus has risen from the brunt of ridicule by Democrats to President Obama's most valuable field general.
"President Bush used Gen. Petraeus as the public face of the war in Iraq," Mr. Mansoor said. "And deliberately so, given that the president's approval ratings were quite low and Gen. Petraeus' approval ratings were quite high. He put Gen. Petraeus into a fairly unique position for a general officer, and that is to be the public media face of the conflict. As a result, Gen. Petraeus bore a lot of the brunt of the political criticism. That's not the case in Afghanistan. President Obama has not used Petraeus in that role."
"The ROE was actually OK, but it was just applied very strictly by risk-averse commanders, and as a result, the same sorts of arguments were being made by the troops, that their hands were being tied."
