From the party who still loves Oliver North, this should come as no surprise. Though this pretty much puts to rest any argument about whether Petraeus is “political” or not. You think? Besides talking about his own visions of glory in American politics, read the entire article which highlights – lowlights, actually – the miserably failed missions of Petraeus during his time in Iraq. (Note: The Independent is a perfectly respectable British newspaper and not a trashy tabloid.)

The US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time. Sabah Khadim, then a senior adviser at Iraq’s Interior Ministry, says General Petraeus discussed with him his ambition when the general was head of training and recruitment of the Iraqi army in 2004-05. “I asked him if he was planning to run in 2008 and he said, ‘No, that would be too soon’,” Mr Khadim, who now lives in London, said…. For a soldier whose military abilities and experience are so lauded by the White House, General Petraeus has had a surprisingly controversial career in Iraq. His critics hold him at least partly responsible for three debacles: the capture of Mosul by the insurgents in 2004; the failure to train an effective Iraqi army and the theft of the entire Iraqi arms procurement budget in 2004-05.

Is this the kind of person we want to rely on for something as critical as whether or not to stay in Iraq? Let’s hear more about the success of his Iraqi Army training programs, and about what happened to the US taxpayer funded military equipment, before we listen to Petraeus’ reasons for why we need to stay in Iraq. When someone has been part of the problem, why should we suddenly expect them to be part of the solution?

NOTE FROM JOHN: The reason we’re still in Iraq, the reason we can’t withdraw (they tell us), is because the Iraq security forces aren’t yet ready to stand up so we can stand down. Well, Mr. Petraeus was in charge of training those forces. I think it’s time the Democrats held hearings on the status of the Iraq security forces and their training. And, gosh, I guess that means Mr. Petraeus would be a rather large subject of those hearings.