David Petraeus Quotes
I've been in a position before where a president has turned to me in the Oval Office in a difficult moment, without any pleasantries, and said, 'I'm asking you as your president and Commander in Chief to take command of the international security force in Afghanistan.' The only response can be, 'Yes, Mr. President.'
Broadwell, Paula, and Vernon Loeb. All In: The Education of General David Petraeus. Penguin Press, 2012.
George Washington had been appointed by the Continental Congress as Commander in Chief of the Continental Army but was politic about keeping Congress informed and not appear to be usurping authority. He asked Adams for an opinion of whether his authority reached beyond Boston to include the defense of New York City. Adams had been a member of the Congress that appointed Washington. Adams reply has been used as precedent for the broad authority of the President as Commander in Chief by those claiming broad Presidential power since.
This quotation was an attack on President George W. Bush who had argued to a nation hostile about the Iraq War that the decision on whether to continue the war should be determined in large part by the report that was to be given by the commander of our forces In Iraq, General David Petraeus. He reported that he thought we should give the situation some more time and effort, and that was the policy decision. Clark and others thought this was not fair to Petraeus whose job it was not to make the policy but to implement it. It was perhaps the only time in history where a President abdicated a major war policy decision to a field officer. The President even argued to Congress that they should all wait for the General to return to Washington. He argued that he made the decision; he just wanted to hear the General’s recommendation. Most believed that he could have obtained that without the General returning to Washington to talk to Congress and the American people.
Kleinst, one of the guilty war criminals, is here quoted with the defense that most Nazi war criminals uses—namely that they were obeying orders. But international law makes no distinction between military and political orders, and it is the obligation of a soldier to refuse to obey an illegal military order and the orders he obeyed were illegal and contrary to International law—an order to kill babies and young children can never be legal for example.
At the height of the Watergate scandal, the president wanted special prosecutor Archibald Cox fired, because Cox was developing evidence against the president. The attorney general, Elliot Richardson, refused to fire Cox and resigned. The chief of staff then turned to the deputy attorney general, William Ruckelshaus, who also refused and resigned. Finally, the Solicitor General, next in line of authority, agreed to fire the special prosecutor. These events happened on a Saturday night and became known as the “Saturday Night Massacre”. This event persuaded most Americans that Nixon was guilty of felonies and was desperately trying to cover things up. Congress would include “obstruction of justice” in it’s list of crimes that they would have impeached Nixon for had he not resigned.
He was a Republican who served a Democratic President to the distress of some of the extreme right wingers of the Republican Party.
Few high ranking officers, or officials of civilian organizations, take the responsibility for subordinates not understanding instructions.
David Howell Petraeus AO, MSC is a retired United States Army general and public official. He served as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from September 6, 2011, until his resignation on November 9, 2012. Prior to his assuming the directorship of the CIA, Petraeus served 37 years in the United States Army. His last assignments in the Army were as commander of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and commander, U.S. Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) from July 4, 2010, to July 18, 2011. His other four-star assignments include serving as the 10th commander, U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) from October 13, 2008, to June 30, 2010, and as commanding general, Multi-National Force – Iraq (MNF-I) from February 10, 2007, to September 16, 2008. As commander of MNF-I, Petraeus oversaw all coalition forces in Iraq.
