"What Petraeus Wants, Petraeus Will Get"

Apparently that's what Bush's philosophy is on Iraq, according to TIME.

Conventional wisdom suggests siding with President Bush and General Petraeus on this one. After all, as the Commanding General in Iraq, who is better qualified to make decisions about the future of the fragile country? If Bush cannot rely on his "commanders on the ground," as he often refers to them, then upon whom can Bush rely?

I disagree with conventional wisdom on this one for one simple reason: Generals are not policy makers. They're warfighters. Their job is to conquer and destroy, not rebuild and mend relations between residual warring factions. Somewhere in the bizarro land that has become our foreign policy, career killers have become experts on reconstruction.

And so it goes with today's dog-and-pony show. General Petraeus will field questions from mainstream Presidential candidates while the media hopes to catch a glimpse of the next Commander in Chief's philosophy for Iraq (and beyond). Although I'm certain the media will subject us to countless renditions of Clinton's and Obama's "anti-war" rhetoric during their questioning period, I won't be at all surprised to hear all three mainstream candidates echo Bush's erroneous mantra that they will provide whatever the General needs to "win the war."