These past few days, I've been trying as to watch as much of the testimony of General Petraeus as has been possible. During the snippets that I have caught, a few things have struck me. The first, and one which was, perhaps, not unexpected, was the degree to which many of the Senators and Representatives opposed to the war refused to listen to the General; preferring, instead, to do something akin to plugging their fingers in their ears and going 'la, la, la, I can't hear you!' like a bunch of third graders. In any case, it certainly is not the mark of a mature adult to hire someone to do a job for you, ask him to come back and file a report about that job, and then proceed to tell him that, while you think he's the best in the world at the job, you're not actually going to either believe or listen to any of the information that he reports back with.
Seriously, if you don't care what the guy has to say, don't make him come to D.C and give you a report. I mean, I know the only clock that politicians care about is the one counting down the time until their next re-election campaign - but I'd say the leader of multi-National forces in Iraq has a hell of a lot better things to do with his time than spend it blathering to a bunch of idiots with the maturity level of kindergarteners who won't give a damn what he says in the end anyways.
General Petreaus shouldn't have to waste his time on petty politics, he has something a bit more important on his hands - it's called a War.
Furthermore, I couldn't get over the gaggle of politicians who kept telling the General that they respected his integrity and thought the world of him - and then turned around and told him that the statistics he was presenting to them were incorrect, or that the information he was giving them was false. Now, maybe I'm just an ol'-fashioned Southern boy; but if you call someone a liar and accuse them of committing perjury - I think it's safe to say you've called their integrity into question.
On a different note, I must say, I'm damn glad that General Petraeus is the man leading our military in Iraq right now, these past few days, despite all the BS that has been laid at his feet by these politicians, he's handled himself with dignity and honor and proved himself not only to be an ingenious commander but an upstanding man as well. He had answers for all the crappy, politically-motivated questions that were tossed his way, and he refrained from stooping down to the level of the anti-war, vote-groveling politicians when he could have easily done so (and smacked them around a bit). Moreover, when he was asked about the inexcusable, newspaper attacks on his character by some elements of the anti-war movement, he responded simply by noting that generations of soldiers had fought to give those people the Right to say what they wanted - even if they are a bunch of stupid jerks.
Class and the ability to lead with one's actions instead of one's words are rare traits on Capitol Hill - and while the General may not have dazzled Congress with his example of supreme character, he may very well have made an impression were I'm guessing he would most like to, in the homes of ordinary Americans. Indeed, history tells us that Americans, as a whole, are typically much more impressed by silent leaders, like Washington, than they are by politicians up on their high horses, pontificating about what we should or shouldn't do. Let's hope the same is true this time around too.
I suppose we'll find out soon enough anyways.