PHILLIPS: What's interesting is that Petraeus not only was one of the most popular commanders when it came to the 101st Army Airborne, but also he's an intellectual of sorts, David, a Ph.D. from Princeton.
GERGEN: Yes.
PHILLIPS: And this is a general who came in and devised a team of intellectuals to surround him and support him and to add to that military background, an intense intellectual -- I guess you should say -- round table as he dealt with operations there.
GERGEN: That's right. This is a man who is now in his third tour, who had a celebrated first tour in Iraq in the north. And then came back for a second tour to try to work with the Iraqi army, trying to train them up. That was regarded as less successful. And now he's back for his third tour.
And he is -- there is a considerable degree to which General Bush -- President Bush went looking for him. He wanted General Petraeus over there. He wanted someone who thought as he did. So, you have to say that there is an alliance of, at least, outlook between the president and General Petraeus at the beginning.
At the same time, General Petraeus has won high marks within the military on all services as one of the most respected, independent- minded men and who really is the -- become a father figure on counterinsurgency. How do you do -- how do you run smart counterinsurgency? He's written a book on that for U.S. Army training.
I must tell you, I have a personal relationship with him, so I'm sure I'm biased in this regard. But I think what he's -- I think what all of us are looking forward to, what does he really have to say? Then we can assess it. But it sort of seems unfair to load it up against him personally before he's even had a chance to open his mouth in this long-awaited testimony.
This fabulous intellectual has opened his mouth many times over the past few years, and in doing so has proved himself each time to be a hack for the Bush administration. Check out this Glenn Greenwald video:
I grew up in a military family and I'm not hostile to the services. But this phony reverence for The Man Called Petreaus is enough to make me sick. He may be a smart guy but he's as political as they come. In fact he's been pimping the white house marketing scheme almost non-stop for months, culminating in spending virtually the entire month of August glad-handing easily impressed congressmen like Brian Baird.
All this hand-wringing sanctimony about Petraeus today as if he's some sort of godlike figure who is beyond criticism is ridiculous. He's selling his war and that's his right. But when he spins and obfuscates and lies like a politician, he should expect to be treated like one.