Letter: Gen. Petraeus better watch his back

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2007 | 7:08 a.m.

On Tuesday the Las Vegas Sun published a column by retired Army Col. Ken Allard, who is the author of "Warheads: Cable News and the Fog of War." I hope Allard is right in his assessment of Gen. David Petraeus, who is soon to be the new commander of U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq. Allard called Petraeus "perhaps the outstanding soldier of his generation."

I hope the general is able to bring some semblance of order to Iraq. I'm not referring to the democracy that President Bush made as his goal. I'm referring to an ability to stop the killing (97 Iraqis on average a day during 2006), and an ability to persuade the Sunnis and Shiites to get along with each other.

Petraeus can be sure of support from the American people, but he better watch out for his commander in chief, President Bush. The president claims he listens to his generals, but apparently only when they tell him what he wants to hear.

When former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki told the Bush administration that "several hundred thousand soldiers" would be needed in Iraq to keep the peace after the Iraqi army was defeated, he was reassigned (fired) and they tried to do it with 150,000 troops, giving us the disaster we're still living with today.

In similar fashion, when Gen. George Casey, current Iraq commander, and Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, told the president that there wasn't a military solution in Iraq, and the troop surge wouldn't work, they were shown the door as well.

Few experts give the surge much chance of being successful, but maybe Gen. Petraeus can get the job done. I pray he does.

Richard J. Mundy, Las Vegas