No one could have predicted that this entire thing of funding the Ukrainians was just a process of acclimating people to the idea of war with Russia with the end goal of the US Military entering the war directly. Well, actually, I predicted that, but people were obligated not to listen to me because I... Read More

General David Petraeus is the great military genius of our time. He single-handedly turned the tides of the Iraq War, finishing off the Arabs and ending the war in 2007. People were saying “the war is unwinnable – it’s going to last 20 years and you’re still going to lose.� Those people didn’t know about... Read More

It is being reported that recently rusticated CIA Director David Petraeus annoyed his Agency subordinates through his requiring staff to hand him bottles of water at “precise intervals� when he was jogging and also demanding fresh sliced pineapple be made “available during business trips before bedtime.� As I recall when Ronald Reagan's Director of Central... Read More

Introduction: The headline stories claim that CIA Director General David Petraeus resigned as head of the CIA because of an adulterous relation with his young biographer and that General John Allen, Supreme Commander of US troops in Afghanistan, was under investigation and his promotion to top commander of US troops in Europe was on hold,... Read More

Sunday’s Washington Post featured an op-ed by John Prados, described as a “national security expert,� entitled “He slept with her. Who cares?� in the print edition. Who cares indeed -- apparently not Prados, who prefers to see a sex scandal surrounding General David Petraeus where the real issue is the pervasive corruption and entitlement mentality... Read More

Nearly everyone commenting on the rapidly expanding Petraeus story is missing the most critical point: it is inconceivable that the FBI would get involved in an investigation that came to include the Director of Central Intelligence even peripherally without having that information go straight up to the desk of FBI Director Robert Mueller. And Mueller... Read More

James Fallows of The Atlantic is the blogosphere’s Renaissance Man. I follow him for his posts on East Asia, which are consistently among the most informed on the net (disclosure: he is a friend from his days in East Asia in the 1980s). Jim’s other fields of special expertise range from handicapping Presidential horse races... Read More

It now seems clear what occurred to bring down CIA Director David Petraeus: some months ago his paramour Paula Broadwell sent threatening emails to another woman warning her to keep away from Petraeus, seemingly unaware that computers and emails have signatures that can be identified by investigators. The woman, identified by the Associated Press as... Read More

I have long ranked second to none in my pessimism about America’s continued capacity for world leadership. People ask me why. One reason is that, having spent 27 years in East Asia, I know it is a tough old world out there — much tougher than most Americans seem to realize. In modern conditions moreover,... Read More

President Obama is often portrayed as a political neophyte who is forever confronting situations that are far over his head, but his choice of General David H. Petraeus to replace General Stanley A. McChrystal was in some ways a masterly political stroke, though it does not seem to have achieved all that Obama may have... Read More

General David Petraeus has a high reputation but his real abilities are not the ones usually attributed to him. He is, above all, a general with an acute sense of US politics combined with a realization of the importance of understanding the politics of Iraq and Afghanistan. His great achievement in Iraq was to persuade... Read More

When President Bush appointed General David Petraeus Commander (head) of the Multinational Forces in Iraq, his appointment was hailed by the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post as a brilliant decision. General Petraeus: “President Ahmadinejad and other Iranian leaders promised to end their support for the special groups but the... Read More

Blend a war and a presidential campaign and you have a recipe for 200 proof mendacity, as the Petraeus hearings at the start of the week triumphantly proved. Take the war first. Into the witness chair in the Senate chamber marched General Petraeus, the blaze of ribbons on his chest suggesting actual combat experience somewhat... Read More

I am told by the Manchester Guardian, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and theWashington Post that you have impeccable academic and battlefield credentials. Bush has appointed you “Commander of the Multinational Forces in Iraq�, and so you have the power to implement your highly publicized counter-insurgency theories. You are nearly my namesake... Read More