After a scandalous affair brought him down, we ask how successful the retired general’s military strategies have been.
A scandalous affair has brought down a man referred to by many as one of the greatest generals in US history. But how successful have David Petraeus’ strategies really been in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Until a few years ago, few people had heard of Petraeus. But in Washington DC, he has been long revered.
He has been compared to the likes of Dwight Eisenhower, the man who led the allied forces to victory in World War II.
His counter-inserguency strategies in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hailed as great sucesses.
How one can compare David Petraeus to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower is beyond me. Eisenhower led a coalition of Allied Forces which defeated Nazi Germany. Ending one of the darkest periods in European and world history.
What has David Petraeus accomplished that equals the military record of General Eisenhower? Nothing he’s done even comes close.
Earlier this year, Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Davis released a whistleblower report on conditions in Afghanistan.
He said that Petraeus consistently gave glowing and inaccurate accounts of US military progress and that Petraeus built a so-called “cult of personality” around himself.
“A message had been learned by the leading politicians of our country, by the vast majority of our uniformed service members, and the population at large [that] David Petraeus is a real war hero – maybe even on the same plane as Patton, MacArthur, and Eisenhower …. But the most important lesson everyone learned [was to] never, ever question General Petraeus or you’ll be made to look a fool!”