Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Petraeus backs Obama on Gitmo and torture

By Michael J.W. Stickings

As HuffPo's Sam Stein reports, Gen. David Petraeus, that darling of the warmongering right (at least when he was devising and leading the Iraq Surge), has come out in support of Obama's positions on Gitmo and torture.

Interviewed on Radio Free Europe this past weekend, Petraeus noted that he has "long been on record as having testified and also in helping write doctrine for interrogation techniques that are completely in line with the Geneva Convention." He also stated that he approved closing Gitmo "in a responsible manner."

As Stein points out, this is a significant boost for Obama. Along with Colin Powell, who also spoke in defence of Obama on Sunday, Petraeus is another high-profile military leader (and Republican) who disagrees with Cheney, and with the many on the right who agree with Cheney, on two key national security issues.

Will the right-wing smear machine now unleash its fury on Petraeus? Will it seek to take down one of its heroes?

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3 Comments:

  • You have an extremely strained interpretation of General Petraeus's comments. In fact. your headline is an outright lie.
    Petraeus said nothing that no prominent Republician would have a problem with. No one would be against Gitmo being closed in a responsible manner. The question is, what is responsible? Petraeus gave no indication that he thought Obama's intentions are responsible.
    No prominent republician has a problem with being required to observe the interrogation techniques as prescribed in the Geneva Convention WHEN THE GENEVA CONVENTION APPLIES. It obviously does not apply in this case.
    Petraeus is smart enough not to publically take issue with Obama before he is ready to retire. Therefore he carefully avoided revealing his opinion on Obama's positions. I know that you are not too stupid to read, you just enjoy distorting the facts like any other left wing wacko.

    Gerald Manuel

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:21 AM  

  • Gerald, are you suggesting that President Obama is cruel enough to punish the general before he retires? What about the "Obama is Jimmy Carter 2.0" meme?

    Give it up. I heard the entire Petraeus interview on RFE and Stein got it right.

    Flail on.

    By Blogger Mustang Bobby, at 5:51 PM  

  • "It obviously does not apply in this case."

    To what sort of person would that be obvious? The sort who defines any difference in perception as "wacko?"
    There is a point beyond which rhetorical hyperbole becomes dishonesty and perhaps you passed that point so long ago you stopped looking in the rear view mirror to see if the real worlds was still there.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 9:22 AM  

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