What's the Languish perspective on Gen. Petraeus?

[FunkMonk]

Siegey should watch Seven Days in May

[Neil]

How do you pass psych evals?

Well, to start with he casts his heroes as Julius Caesar rather than Sulla.

Sulla marched in to Rome at the head of a coup to try to restore his version of the traditional order to a Republic.  Can't really say Caesar did that.

In a modern context, Caesar is superior.  A modern Sulla would be like some Republican general marching to bring back the 1950s (although no doubt with much lower tax rates).

[Ed Anger]

How do you pass psych evals?

Well, to start with he casts his heroes as Julius Caesar rather than Sulla.

Sulla marched in to Rome at the head of a coup to try to restore his version of the traditional order to a Republic.  Can't really say Caesar did that.

In a modern context, Caesar is superior.  A modern Sulla would be like some Republican general marching to bring back the 1950s (although no doubt with much lower tax rates).

Sounds dreamy.

[Siege]

I hear this phrase from time to time, what is a full bird colonel?

Army Colonels are always flying around over the battlefield to have a better situational awareness, so they are called birds.



Seriously, the rank of Colonel is an Eagle. 


While a Lieutenant Colonel Rank Insignia is a silver-colored oak leaf.

[Siege]

Siegey should watch Seven Days in May

I don't watch movies.
Recommend a book if you please.

[Razgovory]

Siegey should watch Seven Days in May

I don't watch movies.
Recommend a book if you please.

Okay, read Seven Days in May.

[FunkMonk]

 

[Malthus]

I think Petraeus can be credited with a significant contribution to turning Iraq's security situation around. He was also a key high-level patron for a cadre of officers who argued for a new operational and tactical approach, the importance of which is often easy to forget. Try getting anything disruptive done in any organisation without an energetic senior backer.

Yes, he was politically astute and knew how to work the media well, but above a certain level of seniority, the art of generalship begins to take on political overtones, particularly when it comes to winning bureaucratic struggles back home as well as the exercise of theatre command.

I've met him a couple of times; he seems like a genuinely decent man. On one trip through the UK, he took the time to participate in a private seminar with students and young researchers. It was all off the record, so there was no PR gain for him, and none of us were politically connected - but he took the meeting seriously, was generous with his time in a packed schedule, and gave answers as frank as anyone in his position could realistically do. I think that said a lot about him.

Of course, his record is mixed, and the Broadwell affair was a silly indiscretion. But the counter-cult of Petraeus went a little too far, I felt, in trying to peg him back down.

Thanks again.

It is first-hand experience like yours and Alcibiades' that keeps me reading Languish. 

[crazy canuck]

CC never watched MASH.

Thats where I think I heard it the most.  Thanks for the explanations all.

[CountDeMoney]

Siegey should watch Seven Days in May

I don't watch movies.
Recommend a book if you please.

Okay, read Seven Days in May.

Lulz.

[CountDeMoney]

Apparently he was as 'career orientated' as could be as an officer in the army, which you military folks will know is a bad thing.  Very cut throat and took all credit for his underlings while not hesitating to throw them under the bus whilst forming a 'cult' of followers around him.

Kind of difficult to avoid in an organizational culture built upon a "move up or move out" philosophy, isn't it?