WASHINGTON: CENTCOM commander General David Petraeus, supported by Defense Secretary Robert Gates, tried to convince President Barack Obama that he had to back down from his campaign pledge to pullout all US combat troops from Iraq within 18 months at an Oval Office meeting on January 21, sources have said.

He asserted that it would jeopardize the "stable political situation in Iraq" and called that risk "not acceptable."

The assertion that Obama’s withdrawal policy threatens the gains allegedly won by the Bush troop surge and Petraeus’ strategy in Iraq will apparently be the theme of the campaign that military opponents are now planning.

Keane, the army vice chief of staff from 1999-03, has ties to a network of active and retired four-star army generals, and since Obama’s January 21 order on the 16-month withdrawal plan, some of the retired four-star generals in that network have begun discussing a campaign to blame Obama’s troop withdrawal from Iraq for the ultimate collapse of the political "stability" that they expect to follow the US withdrawal

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=99076

General Petraeus and his friends in the Pentagon and some recently retired Generals now want to work publicly to undermine Obama?
Fine they can all do that publicly… as unemployed Generals where they have Free Speech that they do not enjoy in the military.
General Petraeus and the other Commanders on the Ground assured Bush for years that they could win in Iraq and Afghanistan they had more time to win the war than it took America to win World War Two.
It is way past time to admit that they failed. Its now time to show that failure has consequences.
Its time to say that thanks to the Bank Bailout that we DO NOT HAVE THE MONEY TO FIGHT IN AFGHANISTAN let alone Iraq.
A real General plans for victory by asking can we afford it. A real General asks if the cost of a war is more than the cost of living with what happens if we don’t fight.
The cost of the Iraq war this minute over $593 billion dollars and counting.

http://www.nationalpriorities.org/costofwar_home

Think about just how many Hybrid Cars we could have bought for that.
Remember Iraq had no ties to 9/11, Afghanistan did but Ossama left and Bush and did nothing.
However the less money we spend on gas the less money Ossama has to pay for future terror attacks
Fight Smart not Hard!