Just Like Samantha Powers, Gen. Petraeus is out to get Israel!
http://www.dianawest.net/Home/tabid/36/EntryId/1318/Is-Petraeus-an-Islamic-Tool-Part-2.aspxLast June, I noted Gen. David Petraeus's MoveOn.org-like take on Guantanamo Bay -- close it because it causes us problems and violates (unspecified) Geneva Conventions -- and his willingness to attribute to the Palestinian war on Israel "justifications" for the existence of Hezbollah.
Now this from Foreign Policy (via Judeosphere):
On Jan. 16, two days after a killer earthquake hit Haiti, a team of senior military officers from the U.S. Central Command (responsible for overseeing American security interests in the Middle East), arrived at the Pentagon to brief Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The team had been dispatched by CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus to underline his growing worries at the lack of progress in resolving the issue.
Read: further Israeli concessions.
The 33-slide, 45-minute PowerPoint briefing stunned Mullen. The briefers reported that there was a growing perception among Arab leaders that the U.S. was incapable of standing up to Israel, that CENTCOM's mostly Arab constituency was losing faith in American promises, that Israeli intransigence on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was jeopardizing U.S. standing in the region, and that Mitchell himself was (as a senior Pentagon officer later bluntly described it) "too old, too slow ... and too late."
Mind, this was supposes to be a military briefing, not an OIC event.
The January Mullen briefing was unprecedented. No previous CENTCOM commander had ever expressed himself on what is essentially a political issue; which is why the briefers were careful to tell Mullen that their conclusions followed from a December 2009 tour of the region where, on Petraeus's instructions, they spoke to senior Arab leaders. "Everywhere they went, the message was pretty humbling," a Pentagon officer familiar with the briefing says. "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." But Petraeus wasn't finished: two days after the Mullen briefing,Petraeus sent a paper to the White House requesting that the West Bank and Gaza (which, with Israel, is a part of the European Command -- or EUCOM), be made a part of his area of operations.[/size]
Imperial General Time.
Petraeus's reason was straightforward: with U.S. troops deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military had to be perceived by Arab leaders as engaged in the region's most troublesome conflict.
Q: Since when does the US supreme commander ensure that US military doctrine conforms to Arab perceptions? A: Since now.
The Foreign Policy piece includes an update:
[UPDATE: A senior military officer denied Sunday that Petraeus sent a paper to the White House.
"CENTCOM did have a team brief the CJCS on concerns revolving around the Palestinian issue, and CENTCOM did propose a UCP change, but to CJCS, not to the WH," the officer said via email. "GEN Petraeus was not certain what might have been conveyed to the WH (if anything) from that brief to CJCS."
(UCP means "unified combatant command," like CENTCOM; CJCS refers to Mullen; and WH is the White House.)]
So, Petraeus did propose to put Israel under his purview, but to Mullen, not to the White House. The report goes on:
The Mullen briefing and Petraeus's request hit the White House like a bombshell. While Petraeus's request that CENTCOM be expanded to include the Palestinians was denied ("it was dead on arrival," a Pentagon officer confirms), the Obama administration decided it would redouble its efforts -- pressing Israel once again on the settlements issue, sending Mitchell on a visit to a number of Arab capitals and dispatching Mullen for a carefully arranged meeting with the chief of the Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi. While the American press speculated that Mullen's trip focused on Iran, the JCS Chairman actually carried a blunt, and tough, message on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: that Israel had to see its conflict with the Palestinians "in a larger, regional, context" -- as having a direct impact on America's status in the region. ... Certainly, it was thought, Israel would get the message....
The dhimmi-hostage message carried by Gen.Petraeus being that Israel building 1,600 apartments in Jerusalem places US troops' lives in danger in the wider region (Iraq and Afghanistan). Such appeasement, this time at the expense of the Israelis, will only embolden all of our jihadist enemies to make more and more outrageous demands. The story continues:
Israel didn't.
Well, thank goodness.
When Vice President Joe Biden was embarrassed by an Israeli announcement that the Netanyahu government was building 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem,
He should have gone and cut a ribbon on the project
the administration reacted. But no one was more outraged than Biden who, according to the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, engaged in a private, and angry, exchange with the Israeli Prime Minister. Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing: "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace."
Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.
How about Israelis continuing to breathe? Is that okay?
There are important and powerful lobbies in America: the NRA, the American Medical Association, the lawyers -- and the Israeli lobby. But no lobby is as important, or as powerful, as the U.S. military. While commentators and pundits might reflect that Joe Biden's trip to Israel has forever shifted America's relationship with its erstwhile ally in the region, the real break came in January, when David Petraeus sent a briefing team to the Pentagon with a stark warning: America's relationship with Israel is important, but not as important as the lives of America's soldiers. ...
Here's a plan Gen. Petraeus should be able to get behind: A new battle strategy, maybe a Kilcullen special, for him to join forces with Iran to once and for all nuke Israel and its genocidal apartment houses out of existence. That, according to his own lights, is sure to keep American troops safe in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Heck, it would win the war -- or at least the jihad.
Petraeus: Israel's Intransigence Could Cost American Lives
http://middleeast.about.com/b/2010/03/14/petraeus-israels-intransigence-could-cost-american-lives.htmDid you say Israel? Centcom Commander David Petraeus and Vice President Joe Biden have something in common now: the thorn and danger that Israel's "insults" represent for American policy in the Middle East. Ryan Crocker, in the middle, a former ambassador to Iraq, is now out of the picture. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The row over Israel's "insult" of Joe Biden and the United States (Hillary Clinton's and David Axelrod's word, not mine) continues, deservedly so.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's claim that he knew nothing of the announcement of 1,600 new units in Israel's colonization of Arab East Jerusalem, timed to smack with Biden's visit to Israel last week, isn't washing. The vice president's trip, designed to smooth over relations between Israel and the United States, may instead be a turning point for the Obama administration, though Biden missed a chance to make that turn more explicit.
As Thomas Friedman writes in The Times today (in a piece aptly termed "Driving Drunk in Jerusalem"), Biden
should have snapped his notebook shut, gotten right back on Air Force Two, flown home and left the following scribbled note behind: "Message from America to the Israeli government: Friends don't let friends drive drunk. And right now, you're driving drunk. You think you can embarrass your only true ally in the world, to satisfy some domestic political need, with no consequences? You have lost total contact with reality. Call us when you're serious. We need to focus on building our country."
I think that -- rather than fuming and making up -- would have sent a very useful message for two reasons. First, what the Israelis did played right into a question a lot of people are asking about the Obama team: how tough are these guys? The last thing the president needs, at a time when he is facing down Iran and China -- not to mention Congress -- is to look like America's most dependent ally can push him around.
The political ramifications in Israel or between Israel and the United States aren't the main issue here. What this "insult" is unraveling is what Friedman barely alludes to, though not clearly enough: Israel's posture is undercutting American credibility and interests in the Middle East (in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Pakistan, and even in the Arab heartland where open conflicts don't cloud perspectives).
Mark Perry makes that point in a remarkable piece for Foreign Affairs in which he reports on a January meeting instigated by David Patraeus, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mike Mullen. Petraeus warned Mullen that everywhere in the Middle East, and because of Israel's gratuitous manipulation of American policy, "America was not only viewed as weak, but its military posture in the region was eroding." Petraeus requested to the White House that Palestine/Israel be included in his region of command (known as Centcom). He was rebuffed. This White House, like previous administrations, doesn't want "linkage" between the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and other conflicts in the Middle East.
It's a colossal blind spot. The fuel and fury of every other conflict, at least in the popular imagination's mind (the popular imagination that fanatics depend on and preach to) is rooted in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Resolve that one and the reason for being of such groups as Hezbollah, Iran's radical clerics and the Osama bin Ladens of the world is considerably diminished.
Petraeus' request didn't get anywhere. His message did. the Obama administration sent Mullen to Israel to meet with Israeli General Staff, Lt. General Gabi Ashkenazi, according to Perry, and tell Israel that it "had to see its conflict with the Palestinians 'in a larger, regional, context' - as having a direct impact on America's status in the region."
Israel didn't get the message, as its humiliation of Biden with the colonization announcement showed yet again. Biden had a private shouting match with Netanyahu. Perry goes on:
Not surprisingly, what Biden told Netanyahu reflected the importance the administration attached to Petraeus's Mullen briefing: "This is starting to get dangerous for us," Biden reportedly told Netanyahu. "What you're doing here undermines the security of our troops who are fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. That endangers us and it endangers regional peace." Yedioth Ahronoth went on to report: "The vice president told his Israeli hosts that since many people in the Muslim world perceived a connection between Israel's actions and US policy, any decision about construction that undermines Palestinian rights in East Jerusalem could have an impact on the personal safety of American troops fighting against Islamic terrorism." The message couldn't be plainer: Israel's intransigence could cost American lives.
Perry's conclusion: say what you will about the power of the Israeli lobby, it does not compare with the power of the Pentagon/military lobby. Israel's short-sighted presumptions may be running out of immunity. If so, it's about time. But so far the Obama administration is still playing the game on Israel's terms. Huffing and puffing doesn't add up to getting tough in substance.
Topic: U.S. General David Petraeus THREATENS Israel!!! (Read 700 times)