Looks like General Petraeus is getting in on the act of Hadley-bashing. CNN just asked Petraeus, the commanding general in Iraq, for comment on Lieutenant General Doug Lute’s likely confirmation as war czar. Petraeus lavishly praised Lute — and then threw a bit of an elbow at Hadley’s National Security Council: “I think [Lute will] probably have authorities, as I understand it, that individuals in the past that position not have had.”
To be fair, Petraeus may have been referring to Meghan O’Sullivan. O’Sullivan until recently was deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, the position superceded by the war czar. But it’s still a reflection on Hadley if he couldn’t get his deputy for Iraq the needed bureaucratic heft.