POLITICO.COM
CENTCOM commander Gen. David Petraeus took several hard shots at Iran on Sunday, saying the country was becoming a “thugocracy” and calling President Mamoud Ahmadinejad “our best recruiting officer.”
Iran’s security forces are playing less of a role in Iraq now, since they “have had to focus a great deal more on internal security challenges than they did in the past,” Petraeus told Fareed Zakaria on CNN.
“Iran has gone from a theocracy to a thugacracy,” he said, “because of the citizens who are outraged by the hijacking of the election that took place last June.”
Saying that Iran has rejected the open hand that the Obama administration extended, Petraeus said, “The result is the transition by not just the United States -- France the U.K., even Russia are all seeing the need to transition to the so-called pressure track, with much stiffer sanctions and so forth.”
Asked whether a nuclear Iran could be contained, Petraeus said, “First of all you have to ask the country that is most directly concerns about this, and that would be Israel.”
In the gulf states, Petraeus said, “There’s almost a slight degree of bipolarity there at times. On the one hand there are countries that would like to see a strike – perhaps Israeli– there’s the worry that someone will strike. And then there’s the worry that someone won’t strike.”
“President Ahmadinejad is often our best recruiting officer,” Petraeus said, because his actions and his rhetoric are causing much more embrace of CENTCOM and other activities than would otherwise be the case.”
Note: ".... saying the country was becoming a “thugocracy”." Well, I'm not a General, but listening to these soundbites just about makes me sick! When did we begin to think that the United States could reason with Ahmadinejad, a man with an unstable mind, hell-bent on wiping Israel off the map, while threatening the West?! Oh, ... I remember, since Obama entered the White House.
And “First of all you have to ask the country that is most directly concerns about this, and that would be Israel.” ... is quite laugable, when we've read all week that Biden's main purpose of visiting Israel is to "TELL ISRAEL" (not ask) not to strike Iran. The Obama Administration has been "telling Israel" how to manage its country for the past year i.e. freeze settlements; don't build in Jerusalem; release 1,000 terrorists to Hamas, so that Hamas will agree to release the IDF soldier Gilad; etc.
These quotes from Patraeus are an example of how entrenched in Obama's double-speech our entire government has sunk - and while "we the people" continue to seek ways to bring our country back from the pits dug by Obama, this type of reporting is very discouraging. Bee Sting
