From archives: Q&A with Rand Beers on Iraq.
Bush is in deep trouble. It’s not exactly news, but what he’s doing to save himself makes our job harder.
That’s why he’s turning to Petraeus to deliver what he wants.
Americans trust military commanders far more than the Bush administration
or Congress to bring the war in Iraq to a successful end, and while most favor
a withdrawal of American troops beginning next year, they suggested they were
open to doing so at a measured pace, according to the latest New York Times/CBS
News Poll. … ..… Only 5 percent of Americans — a strikingly low number for a sitting
president’s handling of such a dominant issue — said they most
trusted the Bush administration to resolve the war, the poll found. Asked
to choose among the administration, Congress and military commanders, 21 percent
said they would most trust Congress and 68 percent expressed most trust in
military commanders.Some Democrats took issue with the characterization of General Petraeus as
operating free of influence from the administration, suggesting that they
would like to diminish his credibility heading into days of intense sparring
over how much more time Mr. Bush’s strategy for Iraq should be given.“I don’t think he’s an independent evaluator,” Senator
Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, responded sharply, saying, “Attacking
him in this way is reprehensible.” … ..
That’s our challenge. Doing what Congress can’t do very well. But attacking
the message of a messenger who has a chest full of medals won’t be easy. No one relishes it either. However, since Petraeus
has chosen to align himself politically with a strategy that is not in our country’s
best interest, but instead props up a failed president and his strategy that’s
what we must do. Putting a commander in chief before country is wrong.
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