Don

By Weekly Archive On Sep 11, 2007

Editor’s
Note: This column was written before the release of the Petraues
report on September 11.

You
know the old Chinese proverb: "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool
me twice, shame on me."

You
may also know the George W. Bush translation, from a 2002 speech in
Nashville: "There’s an old saying in Tennessee — I know it’s in
Texas, probably in Tennessee — that says, fool me once, shame on …
shame on you. Fool me … you can’t get fooled again."

Well,
folks, whether you believe in the original version or the Bush
mangling, we Americans are about to get fooled again by another
general. And if we let that happen, shame, shame on us.

On
Sept. 10 and 11, Gen. David Petraeus will make his long-awaited
report to Congress on the success of President Bush’s "surge"
in Iraq. There’s no doubt what he’ll say. Administration officials
admit that his report was already been written for him, in the White
House. And Petraeus will tell Congress exactly what the White House
wants him to say: We’re making progress. But we still have a long way
to go. So we need more time and more money.

And
because he’s a general, and because he wears the uniform, we’re
supposed to believe him. After all, generals always tell the truth.
Generals would never deceive the American people. Oh, no? Let’s not
forget: It was another general who helped get us into this mess in
the first place.

The
first time President Bush was having a hard time selling the war in
Iraq, he played the same trick on us: He pulled a general out of the
hat. General-turned-Secretary-of-State Colin Powell appeared before
the United Nations Security Council and outlined Iraq’s military
might: stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction; mobile weapons
labs; long-range missiles; armed drones; nuclear weapons in hand or
under production. It was detailed. It was devastating. And it worked
— to convince most Americans that an invasion of Iraq was justified
because Iraq posed such a serious military threat to the United
States.

Only
later did we learn that Colin Powell’s presentation was nothing but a
pack of lies. We’d be fools to expect anything closer to the truth
from Gen. Petraeus.

Notice,
of course, that President Bush is rolling David Petraeus out on Sept.
11 — because, one more time, he’ll try to make the case that Iraq is
somehow tied to 9/11. It’s a phony argument, but one that Petraeus,
apparently, is more than willing to help him make.

And
let’s be honest. Even though for most of his career Petraeus was
hailed as a brilliant, competent commander, he’s now part of the
White House team. He wouldn’t have his job if he hadn’t promised Bush
ahead of time he’d toe the party line. Why do you think Bush fired
Gen. George Casey and replaced him with Petraeus? Because Casey
didn’t believe more troops in Iraq were the answer, and Petraeus did.
Having been responsible for the surge for the last nine months,
Petraeus could never admit that Bush’s plan is failing.

Nor
is Petraeus to be trusted as a neutral observer on Iraq. As columnist
Paul Krugman recently noted in The New York Times, six weeks before
the 2004 election, when Bush was in a tight race for re-election
against John Kerry, Petraeus wrote an op-ed piece in the Times citing
"tangible evidence" that American troops were making
significant progress on the ground in Iraq — even though there was
no such evidence then, or now. Was this part of his job interview
with President Bush?

And
before we get carried away with what a great manager he is, let’s
remember Petraeus’ last job. According to a recent report by the
Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon has lost track of
190,000 AK-47 assault rifles and pistols given to Iraqi security
forces in 2004 and 2005. That represents 30 percent of all weapons
distributed as part of our effort to train and equip Iraqi forces.
The man in charge of security training at the time was Gen. David H.
Petraeus.

All
the more reason for members of Congress not to be dazzled by his
ribbons or his rank. Gen. Petraeus is no more believable on Iraq than
George W. Bush. He may wear the uniform but, like Colin Powell before
him, David Petraeus will betray us.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "How
the Republicans Stole Religion."
His email address is: bill@billpress.com. His Web site is:
www.billpress.com.