General Petraeus on the military today

Thanks to my fellow veterans:

I remember the day I found out I got into West Point. My Mom actually showed up in the hallway of my high school and waited for me to get out of class.

She was bawling her eyes out and apologizing that she had opened up my admission letter. She wasn't crying because it had been her dream for me to go there. She was crying because she knew how hard I'd worked to get in, how much I wanted to attend, and how much I wanted to be an infantry officer.

I was going to get that opportunity. That same day two of my teachers took me aside and essentially told me the following: "David, you're a smart guy. You don't have to join the military. You should go to college, instead."

I could easily write a theme defending West Point and the military as I did that day, explaining that United States Military Academy is an elite institution, that separate from that, it is actually statistically much harder to enlist in the military than it is to get admitted to college, that serving the nation is a challenge that all able-bodied men should at least consider for a host of reasons, but I won't.

What I will say is that when a 16 year-old kid is being told that attending West Point is going to be bad for his future then there is a dangerous disconnect in America, and entirely too many Americans have no idea what kind of burdens our military is bearing.

In World War II, 11.2% of the nation's population served for four (4) years.

During the Vietnam era, 4.3% of the nation's population served in twelve (12) years.

Since 2001, only 0.45% of our population has served in the Global War on Terror.

These are unbelievable statistics. Over time, fewer and fewer people have shouldered more and more of the burden and it is only getting worse.

Our troops were sent to war in Iraq by a Congress consisting of 10% veterans with only one person having a child in the military. Taxes did not increase to pay for the war. War bonds were not sold. Gas was not regulated. In fact, the average citizen was asked to sacrifice nothing, and has sacrificed nothing unless they have chosen to out of the goodness of their hearts.

The only people who have sacrificed are the veterans and their families. The volunteers. The people who swore an oath to defend this nation. You stand there, deployment after deployment and fight on. You've lost relationships, spent years of your lives in extreme conditions, years apart from kids you'll never get back, and beaten your body in a way that even professional athletes don't understand.

Then you come home to a nation that doesn't understand. They don't understand suffering. They don't understand sacrifice. They don't understand why we fight for them. They don't understand that bad people exist. They look at you like you're a machine - like something is Wrong with you. You are the misguided one - not them.

When you get out, you sit in the college classrooms with political science teachers that discount your opinions on Iraq and Afghanistan because YOU WERE THERE and can't understand the macro issues they gathered from books, because of your bias.

You watch TV shows where every vet has PTSD and the violent strain at that. Your Congress is debating your benefits, your retirement, and your pay, while they ask you to do more. But, the amazing thing about you is that you all know this. You know your country will never pay back what you've given up. You know that the populace at large will never truly understand or appreciate what you have done for them.

Hell, you know that in some circles, you will be thought as less than normal for having worn the uniform. But you do it anyway.

You do what the greatest men and women of this country have done since 1775. YOU SERVED. Just that decision alone makes you part of an elite group.

"Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few." -Winston Churchill- Thank you to the 11.2% and 4.3% who have served and thanks to the 0.45% who continue to serve our Nation.

General David Petraeus, West Point Class 1974

"Some people spend an entire lifetime wondering if they made a difference in the world. But, the members of the U.S. ARMED FORCES don't have that problem."



General David Howell Petraeus - A brief biography
Upon graduation from West Point in 1974, Petraeus was commissioned an infantry officer. After completing Ranger School (Distinguished Honor Graduate), Petraeus was assigned to the 509th Airborne Battalion Combat Team, a light infantry unit in Vicenza, Italy. Ever since then, light infantry has been at the core of his career, punctuated by assignments to mechanized units, unit commands, staff assignments, and educational institutions.

Graduating the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in 1983, as the General George C. Marshall Award winner as the top graduate, he went on to advanced educational assignments, esarning his PhD and teaching at West Point degree from 1985-1987.

Petraeus commanded the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault)'s 3rd Battalion 187th Infantry Regiment, known as the "Iron Rakkasans", from 1991–1993. During this period, he suffered one of the more dramatic incidents in his career - in 1991 he was accidentally shot in the chest with an M-16 assault rifle during a live-fire exercise when a soldier tripped and his rifle discharged. He was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, where he was operated on by future U.S. Senator Bill Frist. The hospital released him early after he did fifty push-ups without resting, just a few days after the accident.

In 1999, as a brigadier general, Petraeus returned to the 82nd, serving as the assistant division commander for operations and then, briefly, as acting commanding general. During his time with the 82nd, he deployed to Kuwait as part of Operation Desert Spring, the continuous rotation of combat forces through Kuwait during the decade after the Gulf War.

In 2003, Petraeus, then a Major General, saw combat for the first time when he commanded the 101st Airborne Division during V Corps's drive to Baghdad.

In June 2004, less than six months after the 101st returned to the U.S., Petraeus was promoted to lieutenant general and became the first commander of the Multi-National Security Transition Command Iraq.

In January 2007, as part of his overhauled Iraq strategy, President George W. Bush announced that Petraeus would succeed Gen. George Casey as commanding general of MNF-I to lead all U.S. troops in Iraq.

On October 31, 2008, Petraeus assumed command of the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) headquartered in Tampa, Florida. Petraeus was responsible for U.S. operations in 20 countries spreading from Egypt to Pakistan—including Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom.

On June 23, 2010, President Obama announced that he would nominate Petraeus to succeed General Stanley A. McChrystal as the commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.

Petraeus retired from the U.S. Army on August 31, 2011. On April 28, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that he had nominated Petraeus to become the new Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

On 9 November 2012, citing an extra-martial affair, Petraeus announced his resignation from the CIA. General Petraeus remains a well respected soldier by trops and peers alike.

Special Forces Captain Pens Letter to U.S. Politicians

The author's (soldier’s) name who penned the below letter was withheld due to the fact that he is active duty. I think his letter delivered to “the political leaders of America" was, at the very minimum, "heart felt".







To the political leaders of America,

I write to you today regarding my concerns about the current state in which we find our beloved planet and your efforts in resolving the many issues we face. Over the last decade, we have managed to allow our mighty position at the head of the table to dwindle down to a seat at the kids table, with our counsel being received as if it were that of a child making a suggestion on how to cure the world of evil: everyone thinks it is adorable, but no one takes it seriously.

To put it politely, you all are about as successful in global politics as an overweight middle-aged American with a severe case of tetanus trying to perform fellatio on himself.

Understanding that you have the attention span of indigenous forces undergoing rifle training, I give you the options of either reading this letter in its entirety or simply skipping to the last two paragraphs.

Sadly, you neither get the reference about indigenous forces (ask your college educated SMEs and think tanks) nor are you capable of making a decision on what to do next. Go ahead and post a tweet asking for thoughts/advice and hashtag this out with the others. #hashtaggingworldproblemsisabsurd #noseriouslystopit #itisridiculousandembarrassing You have time, this letter will still be here.

Due your ineptitude in your decisions with regard to who we back with foreign aid, and your complete lack of a spine in dealing with global threats, we find ourselves, for the first time in ages, being looked at with eyes filled with disdain and disrespect.

The mere mention of ‘America’ leaves a bad taste in the mouths of our friends and allies. The prospects of being saved by our once-great nation are now nothing more than a fleeting thought in the hearts and minds of Third World Country natives who dream of a life with fewer hardships than ones they currently face—hardships that could be vanquished by the hands of a great nation and its allies.

We have entered into a time in which it is not only possible to spread one’s hate filled rhetoric, it is also actually profitable and protected. Your understanding and misinterpretations of our founding freedoms are being used and twisted to further your own political agendas without any consideration for the people you are meant to represent.

Your understanding (or lack thereof) of our Constitution contributes to the complete madness of a country that is run where someone’s rights to desecrate the flag that represents these very freedoms is more important than the patriotic peoples who stand to protect it. Allowing people to lose houses or be fined for flying the American flag on their property due to it offending someone or being against a housing covenants is beyond ludicrous. It’s both absurd and frightening. These are just a few examples of countless rights that are being used to tear the very fabric of which this country is founded.

You see, all of you have forgotten the very key that makes this country work. You fight for one’s freedoms to express their beliefs regardless of where their loyalties lie. Using our very own founding documents, you argue that it is ones right to speak and act freely on their beliefs, regardless of their view of this great nation.

For fear of offending someone to pure political motivations, you stand up for the very people that wish to tear you down. What you, as well as most Americans have forgotten is this: Those individual rights end where others begin! It may be ones right to protest a certain religions display or another’s stance on certain political views, however, it is also the others right to display and have those stand points.

If one is offended by a shirt displayed with an image of a gun, a flag of our nation, a statue representing their faith in their chosen religion or any other example; that is their right to be offended and speak out. However, it is the others right to wear that shirt, fly that flag, display that statue or whatever else they wish to do. Freedom cannot be one-sided. The complete madness of political correctness is overwhelming.

You have stripped away our 1st Amendment rights by disguising it as political correctness and making the very people that make this country great afraid of offending any and everyone. I use these examples in our own country as the catalyst that has spawned our current position on the global stage.

Through political motivation or just complete incompetence, your methods of governing our country have clouded your views and thought processes for helping forge a united world. We stand at the table, with weak knees and shivering hands. Our word as a nation holding as much weight as that of our President doing curls in the gym. We have all seen the video…

We live in a world where you can contest our very lands with flyovers without consequence. A world where one can sweep through two entire countries, massacring everyone along the way with no fear repercussions. One where sanctions and empty threats are wielded as a mighty sword against the very enemies that threaten our existence. You fail to see that in today’s world, the pen is not mightier than the sword.

You have demonstrated this time and time again over the last 13 years. Take Afghanistan for example. Politics alone have been the source of Taliban resurgence. How could this be? Let me school you. In 2001, a mixture of CIA, Special Forces and other Special Operations Forces (SOF), in very limited numbers, swept through the entire country of Afghanistan, demolishing the Taliban forces that stood in its way. Thinking that the back had been broken, we backed off and brought more and more ground forces in the country.

As time went on, more and more troops arrived and operational control was taken away from the Special Operations types, to make way for conventional commands. Along with this came more and more restricted Rules of Engagement.

Fast forward to 2006. Following more political moves and further NATO control, we found ourselves in an Afghanistan where the freedom of movement for the insurgents is unprecedented in Operation Enduring Freedom—a freedom of movement that not only limits NATO troops ground movements, but also has even the hardest of SOF elements avoiding a drive into Kandahar City. So, NATO asked the US to help. Enter into the timeline, Operation Medusa.

US Special Forces demolished the insurgent forces to the point that insurgent operations in the entire country dropped. The morale of the insurgents also dropped to an all time low, the grounds upon which the new Afghan Government stands, are once again sturdy. Now, fast forward to present day…

What has happened? Are the insurgents in Afghanistan fleeing and backs broken? Far from it. All of this due to your politics. The war effort drawn down to a near standstill due to more and more pointless commands and approval process. All, in which serve to help some pointless commander to further his career and push some pointless political agenda.

You see, the current world in which we find ourselves isn’t one that can be tamed by the pen. The evils of the world find protection behind the shield of your politics. This is due to one simple fact. You have no clue how to play this game. You listen and make decisions based of your Subject Matter Experts who read about war in a book. You base your strategies on the opinions of ‘Think Tanks’ and conventional wisdom. The answers to these problems being spoken by the men on the ground only to be silenced by ‘yes men’. Due to this, you will continue to fail.

Not only will you fail in Afghanistan, you will fail in bringing peace and security back into this world. All of these failures will be caused by you because of one simple factor: none of you have the intestinal fortitude to do what is necessary. You will use your own misguided experiences and delusions gained in your failures in governing our own country as the grounds on which you base your strategies. But understand this, you can’t defeat evil with butterflies and rainbows. And you sure as hell can’t do it with pens and empty words.

Face it, for the most part, our Foreign Policy is a joke and your efforts on the global stage are nothing short of pathetic. Not going into the fact that you all are voted in for the people by the people to do a job, a job in which you are failing. At least you all aren’t receiving a ridiculous paycheck and benefits package for providing a public service. oh wait…

Our saving grace is that there are still a handful of you that will find this, as frustrating as it is, accurate and motivating. But, then again, if that was the case, then we wouldn’t find ourselves in this situation. Oh the conundrum. We have faith in our abilities as a nation. We have faith in our abilities in unconventional war as well as faith in our ability to destroy the current threats to the world given the freedoms and support required to do so.

So, I write to you today calling you out. You have failed. It is time to hand that Capri Sun and straw over before you put your eye out. You’ve been poking at that hole for some time now. You gave it your best lil buddies, but it’s time. Pull those trainers up around your waist, latch down the Velcro, and watch how real men fight wars.

It is time to unleash the hounds. You have had over a decade of war filled with warriors that would gladly step up and fight. These former service members are battle hardened and ready. More importantly, they understand the game. We stand at the gates, waiting to smite all that is evil in this world. You will not defeat the current evils in this world by playing your political chess games because it is spreading at an alarming rate. Unleash us. Back us. Stand behind us.

History has shown us that evil is only successful when the righteous stand aside and do nothing. Let us show the world that it will not tolerate the likes of ISIS or Boko Haram. That there most certainly are repercussions for committing atrocities. Justice will come to them swift and brutal. Step aside and let us do what is necessary! We stand ready!”

“To know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of one hundred battles.”~ Sun Tzu.