Patreaus article in NYT

[Boilermaker]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/opinion/sunday/a-phony-hero-for-a-phony-war.html

 

[evan12]

yesterday he was one of American Heroes , today he is a phony hero?

 

[Boilermaker]

I think; his recent scandal allowed others to talk about the "real" him.

This is relevant because it shows how feminine and "soft" the top commanders in the military are becoming ... Read the full article and you'll get it.

Food for thought.

 

[Vicente0309]

Consider both the writer and the source before jumping to any conclusions about Patreaus' military and/or leadership competencies

 

[Boilermaker]

so you created an account just to say that?

Interesting.

Enlighten me about the writer. I might have heard of his father, Truscott sounds familiar.

The source is the NYT as you can see.

 

[Married Buried]

I think; his recent scandal allowed others to talk about the "real" him.

This is relevant because it shows how feminine and "soft" the top commanders in the military are becoming ... Read the full article and you'll get it.

Food for thought.

Petraeus does not look tough at all from the pics. It looks like I could easily kick his ass.

 

[Bokanovsky]

yesterday he was one of American Heroes , today he is a phony hero?

The generals of today are nothing more than celebrities in uniforms, as the article correctly pointed out. Patreaus' popularity was a result of carefully orchestrated PR, not his extraordinary character or military accomplishments. The media made him a hero in the first place, and now that he has fallen out of favor, they are tearing him down.

 

[Warrior74]

I can't say why, and I'm to tired to think, but I found the entire tone and content of that article disgusting. That's just my gut reaction. It may not vibe with the tone in this thread, but that's how I feel about it.

 

[Rollo Tomassi]

I think there's a real desire to see our Generals in the same light as Patton or Mac Arthur, so we paint up this romanticism about them. You have to remember that Petraeus and Allen are a couple of the first Generals from Generation AFC, people just don't want to adjust to that reality.

 

[taiyuu_otoko]

Lot of issues to wade through in order to make sense of that piece.

1) dude who wrote it is a budding screenwriter, among other things, so naturally he'll try to create as much drama as possible.

2) It's an opinion piece, so much if it is merely a reflection of his own personal beliefs

3) you can't really compare current generals to WWII generals, as the military industrial complex has changed how wars are fought significantly. Going in, kicking ass, and winning isn't necessarily the outcome. Bit more complicated today.

The dudes who exist today who would have been nail eating generals of yesterday are still around, they're just in different places. That generals today are more political than they were fifty years ago is really an aspect of changing political/banking/global business structures than anything else.

Personally, I try to stay away from NYT op-ed pieces.

Nothing useful there.