Petraeus Helping Pick New Generals

[99th_Monkey]

Source: Washington Post

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 17, 2007; Page A01

The Army has summoned the top U.S. commander in Iraq back to Washington to preside over a board that will pick some of the next generation of Army leaders, an unusual decision that officials say represents a vote of confidence in Gen. David H. Petraeus's conduct of the war, as well as the Army counterinsurgency doctrine he helped rewrite. <snip>

Some junior and midlevel officers who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been particularly outspoken in their criticisms, saying the Army's current leadership lacks a hands-on understanding of today's conflicts and has not listened to feedback from younger personnel.

"It's unprecedented for the commander of an active theater to be brought back to head something like a brigadier generals board," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, former head of the Army War College. A senior defense official said Petraeus is "far too high-profile for this to be a subtle thing."

The board, composed of 15 Army generals, will examine a pool of more than 1,000 colonels to select about 40 brigadier generals, expected to lead the service over the next decade or longer. Although each board member has an equal vote on the candidates, Petraeus will be able to guide the discussion.

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/16/AR2007111602258.html?wpisrc=newsletter

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This is NOT a good sign, despite the positive spin put on it in the article. We all know that Petraeus is Bush's bag man in the Pentagon, and an "ass-kissing little chickenshit" to boot. This is NOT about rewarding "hands-on" expertise in promotions to General, it's about hand-picking more Petraeus type ass-kissers who will not EVER dare question the insane war-lust of the Chimperor, such as General Fallon and CENTCOM have done recently vis-a-vis refusing to attack Iran. This move insures that the next generation of our Army's highest leaders will be unprincipled ass-kissers, willing to blindly execute whatever horrific orders come out of the White House. I'd love to get General Fallon's "off the record" opinion on this, but I'll probably have to wait until he joins the ranks of retired Generals who couldn't stomach this crap any longer.