CIA Director Petraeus

Long War: When he was an Army general, Petraeus left bigger fingerprints than he does now. Therefore it is easier to analyze this part of his career and gain an insight into what he is doing now. Consider the Sunni Awakening Movement in Iraq.

The Baker report had just come out and the Joint Chiefs in the Pentagon were ready to pull the plug in Iraq and create a Vietnam defeat that would have been catastrophic for long term world peace and the global economy. Against this backdrop President Bush and Gen. Petraeus built a parallel Joint Chiefs organization inside the White house and launched the Awakening Movement strategy against the will of the Pentagon.

Petraeus reached into the bowels of Iraq's Sunni tribal structure, using Egyptian Intelligence as his instrument of persuasion. He convinced the Sunni tribal chieftains to declare war on Al-Qaeda. He guided that war from the White house just like Ollie North did for Reagan. He won that war within a war.

Now consider his ability as a US Army general in Iraq to muzzle the press. We won't go into details as to how he did it but the press was muzzled and this played a big role in turning the Iraq War around.

Okay, how does that help us today? Yemeni tribesmen are rising up, banding into effective militias, and attacking Al-Qaeda in increasing numbers. The pattern is similar to the Sunni Awakening Movement. The Yemeni press is reporting about 50 times more CIA drone strikes in Yemen that the Western press is reporting. Again to save space we will state that the Yemeni Press is more accurate than the Western press without going into details. This smells like a Petraeus press muzzling maneuver.