Opinion (William M. Arkin): The Overrated General Petraeus

The prospective new commander of U.S. military forces in Iraq, Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, is being hailed in these pages and elsewhere in the news media as just what the doctor ordered.

Petraeus "gained fame for his early success in training Iraqi troops," The Washington Post says on the front page. He "helped oversee the drafting of the military's comprehensive new manual on counterinsurgency," the New York Times adds, admittedly in a less fawning review.

I've never met Gen. Petraeus and in fact have heard nice things about him from friends and national security professionals.

But still I ask, why the optimism? Though Petraeus may be an intellectual and promotional wizard, I have a hard time seeing any true success and product from his early work in or on Iraq. And why besmirch the career of Gen. George W. Casey Jr., whom Petraeus is scheduled to replace, just because the Bush administration wants to create the aura that it is doing something in its rearranging of the deck chairs?

Read the rest at the Washington Post