Petraeus the realist

Posted By Daniel W. Drezner Friday, October 31, 2008 - 3:02 PM Share

Given the number of times that John McCain and Sarah Palin have mentioned him and his accomplishments, you'd think that General David Petraeus would be an implicit supporter of the McCain-Palin approach to American foreign policy. Not so much, as it turns out:

Apparently Gen. David Petraeus does not agree with the Bush administration that the road to Damascus is a dead end. ABC News has learned, Petraeus proposed visiting Syria shortly after taking over as the top U.S. commander for the Middle East. The idea was swiftly rejected by Bush administration officials at the White House, State Department and the Pentagon. Petraeus, who becomes the commander of U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Friday, had hoped to meet in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Petraeus proposed the trip, and senior officials objected, before the covert U.S. strike earlier this week on a target inside Syria's border with Iraq. Officials familiar with Petraeus' thinking on the subject say he wants to engage Syria in part because he believes that U.S. diplomacy can be used to drive a wedge between Syria and Iran. He plans to continue pushing the idea. "When the timing is right, we ought to go in there and have a good discussion with the Syrians," said a Defense Department official close to Petraeus. "It's a meaningful dialogue to have." Petraeus would likely find a more receptive audience for his approach in an Obama administration, given Barack Obama's views on the need to engage America's enemies.

Steve Benen makes an interesting observation about the timing of this story:

Not only is Petraeus at odds with Bush, but people close to him are leaking this information just a few days before the presidential election. What's more, it reinforces the dynamic that's been apparent for a while -- when it comes to a national security strategy predicated on diplomacy, Obama and Petraeus are on one side, while McCain and Bush are on the other.

That might be ascibing intent to Petraeus when none existed -- leaks happen for all kinds of reasons -- but it is an interesting development. Developing.... P.S. In other news about foreign policy realists, it sure seems like those supporting McCain are doing so in a very passive-aggressive fashion.

EXPLORE:POLITICS, U.S. FOREIGN POLICY, REALISM

(10)

HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE

APPALLED MODERATE

4:50 PM ET

October 31, 2008

Yes, let's talk to Syria.

Yes, let's talk to Syria. But, for cripes sake, there's no way that Petraeus should be the one doing the negotiations. Yikes!

(I mea...seriously...would you want him leading talks with Pakistan in his new job? Really?)

STEPHEN SAIDEMAN

8:32 PM ET

October 31, 2008

Zinni didn't do badly as a

Zinni didn't do badly as a key interlocutor when he was CENTCOM. Petraeus would be meeting with the major players in his region as it is his job. While Petraeus is not the God that he has been painted to be, he is smart and pragmatic (and not dumb at politics either). So, I have little doubt that he would work well with Obama.

The question will be what to do with him in 2-3 years--another tour of CENTCOM, move him to SACEUR, or perhaps Chairman. Or perhaps moved out. No doubt that Obama will have to get a new Chairman. Needs to make a clean break from the Bush/Rumsfeld supplicants, although the current team with Gates and Mullen is not horrible.

ZATHRAS

8:51 PM ET

October 31, 2008

I'd like an explanation of

I'd like an explanation of how the psychological term "passive-aggressive" applies to Lawrence Eagleburger here. Eagleburger is not a politician; he's a Republican who has known and liked John McCain for decades. That association has earned McCain Eagleburger's vote, not his willingness to gild the lily about McCain's patently unqualifed running mate. If McCain wanted all his supporters to stay more reliably on-message, maybe he should have considered making the message more palatable.

ROB

9:34 PM ET

October 31, 2008

Patraeus has been known as a

Patraeus has been known as a scholar-soldier with his advanced degrees, and was well respected by the Dems (I think in fact he is a Dem) until he turned around Iraq. I'm not sure how close he is to Obama's positions (there doesn't seem to be much strategic thinking going on with Obama), but he's certainly more of a realist than Bush/McCain. One of the most famous quotes from the early combat stage of the Iraq War was when Patraeus expressed his skepticism about the operation, as he was leading his men into combat and asked a NY Times reporter something like, "Please tell me how this ends...

JON KAY

4:29 PM ET

November 1, 2008

Rob wrote: > (there doesn’t

Rob wrote:
> (there doesn’t seem to be much strategic thinking going on with Obama),

Please keep up thinking that way until Wednesday,... Thanks.

MITCHELL YOUNG

8:27 PM ET

November 1, 2008

First, McCain was probably

First, McCain was probably the most prominent elected official supporting Petreaus' surge strategy. Second, I believe the big McCain-Palin talking points are a response to Obama saying he would meet with Chavez etc. without preconditions. I don't see how criticism of top-level meetings with 'adversaries' precludes lower level meetings.

PS. Eagleburger took back his criticism of Palin and rightly called Obama a flim-flam artist. Look even a big Palin support like I am wouldn't want John McCain to drop dead the first day. But if he did, or even before the inauguration (in the unlikely, but looking just slightly possible) event he won, I trust Palin and the advisors to the McCain team will have the situation well in hand. I can't say that about a man that has spent the preponderance of his adult life associating with those hostile to the majority population of this nation (Wright, Ayers, the race-based organizing etc).

JON KAY

8:29 PM ET

November 2, 2008

McCain's support of the Surge

McCain's support of the Surge would be more impressive to me if he hadn't, year after year, utterly failed to show any sign he understood Petreaus's strategy, or what was going wrong in Iraq - that the problem was that there's no mulligan against the post-invasion need to protect invaded populations until their internal security's on an even keel again, and Petreaus' strategy was to fix that.

I can’t say that about a man that has spent the preponderance of his adult life associating with ... Wright, Ayers...

Wait - if you conservatives think Obama spent most of his time in Church and charitable boards with their share of conservatives, shouldn't you be FOR him?

JON KAY

8:30 PM ET

November 2, 2008

closing italics

JOHN MARZAN

5:54 AM ET

November 3, 2008

well, i also hope obama

well, i also hope obama listens to petraeus about iraq.

J. PERULFI

7:19 AM ET

November 3, 2008

I read this Petraeus leak

I read this Petraeus leak thing with some interest and scepticism. Why not a big jump on the story? What about the stories coming out regarding the US raid and muted Syrian response /tacit approval? And, must comments be filtered through the election prism? With Bush as a handy target,I would assume that Petraeus is already on a McCCain short list for Chairman. Maybe, he is doubling down for Obama. This whole story sound like a made for DC special.