Saturday, January 15, 2011

A Five-Star Effort

The push is on among Washington's war hawks to give Gen. Petraeus a fifth star on his epaulets, the first time that would be done since Gen. Omar Bradley in 1950.

"The U.S. war against terrorism is now the longest war in U.S. history, and Gen. Petraeus has clearly distinguished himself as a leader worthy of the rank held by Gens. MacArthur, Marshall and Nimitz," Pete Hegseth and Wade Zirkle, of the group Vets for Freedom, wrote in the Wall Street Journal.

Hegseth served in Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division and is bound for Afghanistan. Zirkle, a Marine, deployed twice to Iraq.

They make the case that Petraeus deserves the higher rank and that others will benefit if he gets it.
"A promotion would properly honor his service -- and it would also honor the troops he leads and has led," they write. "Today's soldiers have fought as valiantly as any in American history, and they deserve recognition of their leaders. Congressional approval of a fifth star would demonstrate the nation's commitment to their mission."

Hegseth aid Thursday that the response to their suggestion has been overwhelmingly positive. He laughed off a question about whether he had heard from Petraeus himself, saying he didn't expect to.

"We're just hoping to gain some traction," Hegseth said. He said congressmen already have volunteered to push the promotion forward, although he said he could not provide names.

A spokesman for Petraeus would not discuss the idea with CNN.

I'm kind of torn over this.  On one hand, Hegseth is right:  this is the longest war America has ever fought and Petraeus has served his country ably.  On the other hand...this is the longest war America has ever fought, and it needs to end.  I don't see how a fifth star for Petraeus is going to help bring our troops home.

We're going on ten years in Afghanistan this November.  An entire decade spent at war, halfway around the globe, with no clear winnable objective and no real hope of it ending, other than nebulous promises of coming home in 2014 that may or may not be kept or may be abandoned completely should a Republican end up in the White House in 2012.

Enough blood and treasure has been expended on Afghanistan.  It's time to bring everyone home.  We have enough problems here, for God's sakes.

7 comments:

Rob Wolfe said...

Shouldn't he have to actually WIN a war to snag that 5th star?
I am frankly shocked that he has 4.

Zandar said...

The effort does smack of useless rah-rah nationalism.

Then again, so does invading Afghanistan for nine plus years.

SteveAR said...

Rob Wolfe:

Shouldn't he have to actually WIN a war to snag that 5th star?

Zandar:

The effort does smack of useless rah-rah nationalism.

Can't you lefties use Google to find anything you can't exploit? It took me 30 seconds to find what the both of you said to be hogwash.

Here's the list of 5-star generals and admirals. Look at the dates of the promotions during WWII. Other than Leahy, all of the other ones were during the opening of the Battle of the Bulge, which the Americans were losing at the time.

And Bradley? He was promoted in 1950, during the Korean War. Not only that, he was promoted just after the battle Inchon, before Seoul was retaken, before the breakout from Pusan, and long before the Chinese counter-invasion that eventually led to the stalemate still in place.

So the idea this rank is "ceremonial" or only given because the U.S. wins is very small-minded.

Zandar's Credibility Problem said...

Why do you hate our troops, Zandar?

Oh no!

Rob Wolfe said...

SteveAR, point well taken and thanks for the info. it was interesting to read why former holders of the rank were elevated to it.

Reading the wikipedia entry I actually see no conceivable reason to promote him if you look at the context of why the rank was given in the past.

I am sure that you will disagree.

SteveAR said...

Reading the wikipedia entry I actually see no conceivable reason to promote him if you look at the context of why the rank was given in the past.

I am sure that you will disagree.


And I do. First off, Petraeus leads not only U.S. forces, but also all international forces in Afghanistan. Now that wouldn't guarantee the promotion since he didn't get promoted while commander of CENTCOM. The other reason for it is due to the work he's done. See, unlike those who are part of a union, especially public sector unions, those in the military (and in the non-unionized private sector) usually get promotions based on some kind of exceptional work they've done, which is definitely the case with Petraeus.

innocent bystander said...

shorter steveAR: i simply disagree with everything zandar says, because zandar is a liberal.

shorter me: staveAR is a fucking moron.

Related Posts with Thumbnails