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Graham: You Guys Are The Best
Even more than Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) found it impossible to suppress his admiration for Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. Petraeus deserves that fifth star, Graham said, and Crocker (who has devoted his career to public service in the Middle East) should go someplace not horrible (presumably far away from the Middle East):
Graham's comments:
GRAHAM: Thank you, both of you, well done. You know, according to some, we should fire you. It sounds like, that everything is just -- really nothing good has happened in the last year and this is a hopeless endeavor.Well, I beg to differ. If I could promote you to five stars, I would. And if I could -- I don't know where to send you. You've been to every bad place there is to go, so I'd send you to a good place, Ambassador Crocker.
I cannot tell you how proud I am of both of you.
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Josh
Zachary
Color me disgusted, and unimpressed.
April 8, 2008 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll break ranks here with you guys and say that I think "Davey P." is doing a pretty damn good job all things considered. Remember that he is authorized by Congress but reports to the president, and he's trained to win battles and wars but not to mediate ethnically derived civil wars.
He knows he can't "win" because his Boss doesn't know what that even means. He knows he needs to make progress, and made some, with 30,000 troops. Remember the troop counts the generals estimated they needed to get the situation under control back in the day (somewhere near 4 times our current troop levels).
I think he's a pretty sharp guy in an unusual circumstance.... lets throw rocks at retarded senators, but we only have so many good leaders in our military, lets not confuse the problem.
Its like telling your plumber they are stupid because the house your architect designed looks ridiculous with orange paint?
April 8, 2008 8:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Rude Pundit describes perfectly the Republican love-fest going on today with General Davey P.
WARNING: NSFW
http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2008/04/republicans-to-petraeus-how-may-we.html
What is beyond belief is the way these Senators prostrate themselves before the mendacious enabling of General Davey P in support of Little Georgie's and the Big Dick's War.
Have they no human decency at all? Do they not recognize their direct responsibility for so much death?
April 8, 2008 1:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
I sometimes respect Graham in these hearings (though like Spector he always comes back into the GOP fold after talking tough). But today he's disgusting me. He sounds like he wants to take Petreaus to the prom.
April 8, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love the Rude Pundit - that is my kind of pundit.
I would be that rude if I could get away with it. As it is, I am ruder than many people wish I was.
Thanks for the link.
April 8, 2008 1:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, he IS a member of the Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell brigade, so maybe his fawning is just over the sight of a codpiece - ANY codpiece - in uniform.
Lindsey Graham: beyond pathetic. Someone should tell him there are groups to help exorcise his queer self-loathing demons.
April 8, 2008 1:10 PM | Reply | Permalink
Anyone remember the last time someone received a fifth star? It was March 23, 1961 when President Kennedy restored retired President Eisenhower to the rank of General of the Army. Before that, it had been General of the Army Bradley, appointed on September 20, 1950.
What an absolute, unapologetic sycophant Senator Graham is!
His pathetic comments demean the significant wartime conduct of Generals Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, Marshal, MacArthur, Eisenhower, Arnold and Bradley.
April 8, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just vomited in my mouth a little bit. :X
April 8, 2008 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
Will somebody please out this Senator not because there's anything wrong with it, but because so long as he has credibility, he will perpetuate the anti-Christian values of death and destruction.
April 8, 2008 1:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
"You've been to every bad place there is to go, so I'd send you to a good place, Ambassador Crocker."
Wait - I thought everything in Iraq was great. So he's ALREADY in a good place!
April 8, 2008 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, millions died in WWI and millions died in WWII. How is it that the Republicans believe that the threat posed by terrorism comes anywhere close to what we face now? There is no war on terror. Terror is a tactic and not an enemy. There is no monolithic Islam threat to the rest of the world. We compare the petty, little Bin Laden to Hitler and Stalin? We are measured by our enemies, we must certainly be small and unimportant if our greatest enemy is AQ with its few thousand members.
Most large empires destroy themselves militarily by picking a fight with an enemy that ties them down in a worthless war in a far off land that drains the military and never really counted as a threat to the empire. We saw that with Hitler in Russia (when he should have consolidated power), Musolini in Lybia, France in Vietnam and Russia in Afghanistan. We have only embolbened our enemies at the expense of our military and diplomatic leadership in the world.
April 8, 2008 2:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, now, you know ol' Graham Cracka just loves him some men in uniform.
April 8, 2008 2:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
In a train between Joe L., John Mc, and Mr. Graham, who is lead, who gets the middle, and who brings up the dirty rear?
April 8, 2008 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Has any Dem actually called for Petraeus to be fired?
April 8, 2008 5:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Graham is the smarm king. I love SC but what on earth were they ever thinking when they elected this boob?
-AF
Andrew Sullivan Is A Fraud
April 8, 2008 5:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
Does Linds have the lapel pin on? Uber-patriotism. He does sound like he wants a date with "the General."
April 8, 2008 8:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
If memory serves me right Gen. Petraius was in charge of training the Iraqis before he took over his current assignment. After 22 billion dollars and 5 years they still aren`t trained. He failed in his mission. In the bush administration that qualifies you for promotion.
April 9, 2008 3:34 AM | Reply | Permalink