Greg Sargent and Eric Kleefeld over at TPM have an article entitled:
Petraeus: I Don't Know That I Will Ever Use The Word "Victory" For Iraq
Apparently, despite the fact that McCain / Palin slam Obama for "failing" to use the word "victory" in speaking about the Iraqi war, no less than General Petreus himself -- remember the one that McCain has elevated into a deity on the ground in the theater of operations -- in an interview with the BBC, is refusing to use the word "victory" as well.
Here's the link:
http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpoi...
Follow me below the fold for more on Petraeus' interview.
Sargent and Kleefeld set the interview within the context of the McCain campaign's attacks against Obama for allegedly "wanting to lose" in Iraq.
One of the McCain campaign's chief assaults on Barack Obama is that McCain is insisting that the troops return only after "victory" in Iraq, while Obama refuses to use that word -- a position the McCain forces describe as tantamount to wanting to lose.
Surprise -- now,
none other than General Petraeus may now be refusing to use the word "victory," too.
Not only did Petraeus refuse to use the word -- apparently he suggested that using it might be irresponsible!
They quote this exchange from the BBC interview:
Q: Do you think you will ever use the word "victory"?
Petraeus: I don't know that I will. I think that all of us at different times have recognized the need for real restraint in our assessments, in our pronouncements, if you will. And we have tried to be very brutally honest and forthright in what we have provided to Congress, to the press, and to ourselves.
"This is not the sort of struggle where you take a hill, plant the flag and go home to a victory parade...it's not war with a simple slogan."
How will McCain spin this one? For months he has been hammering Obama for failing to seek "victory" (however elusively defined). Remember Palin's RNC speech. Paliln slammed Obama, thus:
"This is a man who can give an entire speech about the wars America is fighting, and never use the word `victory' except when he's talking about his own campaign."
McCain has repeatedly held Petraeus up as the be-all and end-all when it comes to Iraq. He fawns over him as the "general on the ground" and regularly attacks Obama for not worshipping at the Petraeus altar. Obviously, as Sargent/Kleefeld make clear, the point is not that Obama and Petraeus necessarily agree.
Rather, the point is that the simple-minded bromides and attacks coming from McCain and Palin are at odds with the analysis offered by Petraeus himself.
The video link is over at TPM -- I don't know how to embed a video so you'll have to read it there.
I can't help but wonder whether Petraeus, having spent some one-on-one time with Obama in Iraq, and having also seen McCain's temperament up close, might not secretly be hoping for a change in strategy that only Obama is likely to bring.