The Petraeus bait and switch is a yet another fire-bell in the night – a warning that Petraeus has gained unprecedented power over U.S. war policy. By drawing Obama into a deepening of U.S. military involvement in an unnecessary and self-destructive war on the false pretense that he supported Obama’s policy and then turning on that November 2009 policy once he became commander, Petraeus is acting as though he intends to prevent the President from carrying out the policy on which he had decided.
Unless Petraeus’s bait and switch is decisively rebuffed by the White House, the country’s descent into de facto military control over war policy will continue and accelerate.
But we all know by now that Obama never challenges power, whether it be military or financial, and instead acquiesces. After all, he’s part of the club too. All president’s are. But he is certainly the meekest president within memory. And since he came up in the rough world of Chicago politics, we have to assume the meekness is by design and quite deliberate, and maybe a cover.