Murdering fucks

It is becoming clearer and clearer that Bush hasn't found his "Grant" he's found his Westmoreland.

For two hours, President Bush listened to contrasting visions of the U.S. future in Iraq. Gen. David H. Petraeus dominated the conversation by video link from Baghdad, making the case to keep as many troops as long as possible to cement any security progress. Adm. William J. Fallon, his superior, argued instead for accepting more risks in Iraq, officials said, in order to have enough forces available to confront other potential threats in the region.

The polite discussion in the White House Situation Room a week ago masked a sharper clash over the U.S. venture in Iraq, one that has been building since Fallon, chief of the U.S. Central Command, which oversees Middle East operations, sent a rear admiral to Baghdad this summer to gather information. Soon afterward, officials said, Fallon began developing plans to redefine the U.S. mission and radically draw down troops.

One of those plans, according to a Centcom officer, involved slashing U.S. combat forces in Iraq by three-quarters by 2010. In an interview, Fallon disputed that description but declined to offer details. Nonetheless, his efforts offended Petraeus's team, which saw them as unwelcome intrusion on their own long-term planning. The profoundly different views of the U.S. role in Iraq only exacerbated the schism between the two men.

"Bad relations?" said a senior civilian official with a laugh. "That's the understatement of the century. . . . If you think Armageddon was a riot, that's one way of looking at it."

Don't be surprised when Bush gives Petraeus a fifth star for managing to pass the war on to his successor. Marshall, Eisenhower, MacArthur, Nimitz, Halsey, Arnold, Leahy, Bradley and King managed to get their fifth stars for winning the greatest and most morally defensible war in history. Chimpy will try to give them away for the equivalent of successfully holding Irkutsk in Risk.

Which strangely enough is where most of his political supporters did not even learn the right lessons about tactics. It's all about rolling sixes now.