I am thankful to have my readers who live outside the borders of the United States and are not able to take the temperature of the body politic. That is one of my goals — i.e., explain the societal insanity that is widespread, especially among the establishment political class. Case in point, retired General David Petraeus.
He is interviewed by the Georgian Service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and confirms, by virtue of his responses, that he is either one of the dumbest men to ever pin on four stars or one of the most intellectually dishonest. Perhaps both.
Let me give you some of the low-lights from the interview:
RFE/RL: Where do we stand now in the Ukraine war?
David Petraeus: I think we stand near the end of the Russian winter offensive, which has not achieved its objectives so far, and which probably will culminate short of achieving those objectives. And even if [Russian forces] ultimately take Bakhmut, it will have come at such a cost that it will have been an unwise offensive.And then we are awaiting the expected Ukrainian late spring-early summer offensive, which will feature Western tanks, Western infantry fighting vehicles, artillery, and a variety of other systems, and the kind of training and unit development that will allow Ukraine for the first time to achieve combined arms operations in this particular war — something that Russia has not done in the past and something that the Ukrainians did, to a modest degree, in the Kharkiv offensive last fall.
“End of the Russian winter offensive”? Apparently David does not realize that Spring started a month ago and the Russians show no signs of backing off. And what were the Russian objectives? I have a $1000 to anyone who can point me to a list of Russian objectives for the “winter offensive.” The only objectives I have seen posted in the media are demilitarization, de-nazification and ending the artillery attacks on the Donbas. And the Russians never specified a timeline. In other words, Petraeus is fabricating a strawman and then knocking it down.
Then there is the public obsession about Ukraine’s upcoming counter offensive. I am not aware of any successful military campaign in history that was preceded by repeated public proclamations about the “imminent counter offensive.” That kind of incomprehensible breach of military doctrine serves as a reminder of David Petraeus’ failure as a military commander and as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.
And what about those “Western tanks” that will turn the tide against Russia? General David may want to reconsider his prediction given the “skill” a couple of Ukrainian tank drivers demonstrated this week at a training base in Poland:
Whoops! One less tank for that offensive.
Petraeus continues:
So that’s where we are. We completed a year in which Russia lost the battle of Kyiv, lost the battle of Kharkiv, lost the battles of Sumy, Chernihiv, and Kherson, and they have not achieved their winter objectives. And now, [they] will be faced with a spring and summer offensive by new Ukrainian forces that are being trained and equipped in Germany, Poland, the U.K., and Ukraine that, I think, again, will achieve what Ukraine sets out to do.
Let’s ignore for a moment that Russia did tactical retreats and did not engage Ukraine in any of the so-called battles listed by Petraeus. He glosses over the fact that Russia repeatedly has defeated Ukraine in the Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and inflicted massive casualties on Ukraine in the process. How about Mariupol? Not only did Russia defeat entrenched Ukrainian forces but is rapidly rebuilding the city.
RFE/RL: What do you think would be the aim of such a Ukrainian counteroffensive?
Petraeus: I think it will be twofold. One will be to ensure that the Russians are not able to reinforce or to resupply Crimea through the southeastern part of Ukraine — so to sever that ground line of communications that they achieved by their offensive last spring and summer. And then, second, to bring about the crumbling, perhaps even collapse, of Russian forces in a fairly broad area of southern Ukraine as they liberate more of the Ukrainian territory that the Russians captured last year.
General Dave apparently has not taken time to peruse any of the leaked U.S. military briefing slides that report the complete destruction of Ukraine’s air defense system by the middle of May. He also is ignoring the evidence that this is true as Russia ramps up the number of sorties with fixed wing aircraft delivering monster glide bombs. Then there is the fact that Russia has been busy over the last eight months building stout defensive positions, replete with dragons teeth, mine fields, intersecting fields of fire and artillery zeroed on avenues of approach.
RFE/RL: Let me ask you specifically about Bakhmut. Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of General Staff General Mark Milley said recently that Ukrainians have turned it into a slaughterhouse of Russians, that they are getting hammered there. Could this have been the Ukrainian plan all along, to use so-called bottleneck tactics and waste Russian manpower?
Petraeus: I don’t know whether it was all along, but it clearly has become that over time. Early on, I believe even Ukrainians would have observed that Bakhmut has no real, true geographic significance; it’s not a great rail or road hub the way some other locations are. But I think they came to see the value of defending an urban area against a force that was very unprofessionally just throwing soldiers into this particular cauldron and allowing those soldiers — as General Milley said — to be hammered. The losses have been staggering, while the gains have been incremental and incredibly costly. And I think over time, as well, [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy clearly came to recognize the need to not give Russia anything that it could portray as a victory or as Russian forces achieving the objectives they set out for themselves.
Welcome to the twilight zone. My foreign readers need to understand that Petraeus genuinely believe this nonsense even though public media reports clearly show that Russia is not suffering massive casualties and is not attacking in human waves. The bulk of the fighting is being done by the Wagner Group and they are using tactics that minimize their casualties while turning Ukrainian positions into Charnel houses. As of today, even Ukrainian sources are reporting that Ukrainian forces have been pushed out of 90% of Bakhmut and the Russians are happy to destroy units and equipment attempting to reinforce those beleaguered Ukie soldiers.
The apex of General David’s delusion is revealed in this bit of “analysis”:
But what the Ukrainians will do in the upcoming offensive, this is going to be vastly different. This is going to be combined arms operations, which the Russians have never achieved even at the outset, despite having had months deployed in Belarus and in Russia on Ukraine’s borders, when they could have been training on these kinds of tasks. That’s a staggering failure, in my view. If you’d given me, as a commander, months to train for an invasion, I think I could have done a good bit better job.
I have two words for General Dave — Iraq, Afghanistan. What major victories did he achieve in those two theaters? The answer is none. And he was not up against entrenched forces, with artillery and HIMARS, and tanks, and he failed to defeat guerrilla forces armed with assault rifles and an occasional mortar. He has never been in charge of a battle against forces using combined arms. This is just one more example of his arrogance and lack of critical thinking skills.
I am not shocked by the shallowness and ignorance of Petraeus. It is those qualities that enabled him to earn four stars through his skilled practice in the art of sycophancy. And I assume that some of his proteges, who are gifted with the same degree of incompetence, are in command positions ready to lead U.S. forces into disaster.
I do not believe that Petraeus is engaged in a psy-ops designed to lull the Russians into complacency. But Russian military analysts must be scratching their heads over General Dave’s complete misrepresentation of what has transpired in Ukraine since February 2022 and are asking themselves, “Are the American Generals really this stupid”? I don’t know about all American Generals, but when it comes to David Petraeus the answer is a resounding, Yes!
BS reigns supreme is so many areas of American life, especially in blue states. Kids are not learning and it is buried in BS such as
Pandemic effects, kids want to be the other sex, bla bla bla..
Like Petraeus people believe their own BS.
In my state (West coast) they erode sciences from the school program in favor of social studies. Because to teach physics, biology, chemistry, a teacher must really know something vs. teaching sexual confusion and radical race theories. Surreal.
What’s surreal is that parents willingly send their spawn off to these indoctrination centers and then act surprised at what’s happening.
Another fantastic article by Mr Johnson, this totally compliments the previous excellent one Larry posted referring to “Delusion”. That article referenced the delusional mentality of these psychotic, narcissistic Neocons like David Petraeus, Jake Sullivan, Victoria Nuland, Anthony Blinken, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton & John Kirby, who hang on to these false narratives despite all the evidence to the contrary? These lunatics only see & believe what they want to see, they just live in a bubble of magical thinking that’s not reflected in the Real World, but REALITY will bite, soon enough & REALITY has a way of bursting all the BS & lies & puncturing the bubble of delusional thinking? The Truth will eventually prevail despite all the Propaganda & lies! Thanks Larry for being at the Forefront, you are the Vanguard of Truth & we greatly appreciate your exposing the lies & delusions of the Neocon Warmongers!
Out of subject but worth a read. Der Spiegel has been a Western propagandist since day 1, with yesterday’s article on the “The Abducted Children of Ukraine”. Today, change of tune. The article is worth a read. Are these the people who are going to beat the Ruskies and the Chinks to pulp? Gimme a break! Looks like the wind is slowly changing.
https://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/britain-in-crisis-the-uk-faces-a-steep-climb-out-of-a-deep-hole-a-6b61dc6f-e33f-46f3-bd27-743364dd675c
Petraeus’s over hyped propaganda is an attempt to sway the western populations into the falls belief that Ukraine is winning on the battlefield.
His propaganda is to rally the last idiots into support of the war.
His nonsense is endangering the lives of not only Ukrainian civilians, Ukrainian and Russian troops, but also NATO service men operating in the theatre.
Even worse, the policy conducted by warmongers on behalf of the Western Elite is a shure path toward ending the last vestige of western hegemony, by sending Western Nation into a severe economic RESET.
For those of us who knows European History, the current situation resembles the fall of the Roman Empire.
The current RESET is instigated by the same network of Dynasties and lodges who were behind the fall of the Roman Empire.
These people have to be removed from power and influence, to save western civilization.
Most of the people believe what they want to believe and filter out everything what they do not want to believe.
If you want to be a politician, then tell ‘them’ what they want to hear. It does not matter that it is a complete lie. They will love you. If you tell them the truth then they will hate you
one may think US elites like Petraeus are morons, and maybe some of there are. but they don’t care about how many Ukrainian soldiers are dead. whatever happens in Ukraine, the level of destruction and suffering there will inevitably cause hatred between Ukrainians and Russians lasting for generations.
the US elites have achieved some of their secondary goals like forcing Germany to reduce its economic ties with Russia, destroying the Nordstream pipelines, and causing some of the German companies to set up shop in US where energy is cheaper. so they have achieved a victory by preventing Europe from joining the Russia-China bloc.
I don’t see what’s bad about one’s enemy, that is, the Amerikastani military leadership, being so stupid and delusional. In any case Petraeus isn’t in service now and isn’t exactly going to sign attack orders on Russia.
About Petraeus adultery :
” I know this is not what we have been told for years about Petraeus. I know we have been told he is some kind of towering genius: West Point grad, Princeton Ph.D., four-star general. But add one other quality: blockhead.
No, not because he committed adultery. Adultery is commonplace in our society. It may someday be mandatory.
And his paramour was perfect for him. Paula Broadwell — a name, as someone said, that could have come from a James Bond novel — is also a West Point grad, has a master’s degree from Harvard and is a fitness freak with biceps that could crush walnuts.
Oh, yeah, one more thing: She is as smart as a bag of hammers.
Leaving aside the sordid, yet fascinating, details — as CIA director, Petraeus demanded fresh pineapple be placed by his bedside every night — here is what did in these two soaring intellects:
Petraeus sends Broadwell sexually explicit messages through his Gmail account, messages so explicit that they leave no doubt in the minds of FBI investigators that the two are having an affair.
Got that? The head of the Central Intelligence Agency thinks Gmail accounts are secure and untraceable. What, he couldn’t have checked with a tech-savvy 12-year-old first? (Which is about every 12-year-old in America.) …
But no, Paula Broadwell sends a series of allegedly threatening messages to a woman she thinks might be a rival for Petraeus’s affections. These messages apparently are so aggressive that the woman goes to the FBI. Oh, yeah, I am forgetting one thing: Broadwell sends these messages from an email account she shares with her husband.
Wow. I am surprised the spy master and his Harvard-educated girlfriend didn’t decide to conduct their affair by Podcast.
And just to add to the general weirdness of the story, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday evening that an FBI agent involved in the case is under investigation for allegedly sending shirtless photos of himself to the woman Broadwell was allegedly harassing. But this is collateral damage.
Some see the main story as involving two brilliant people brought low by true love. I don’t see it that way. Petraeus and Broadwell are not Abelard and Heloise. They are more like Dumb and Dumber.
https://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/petraeus-dumb-shes-dumber-083733
With generals like this Petraeus and Milley and politicians like Nuland, Blinken, Kirby, Sullivan, Biden, Pompeo and Bolton, USA wants to fight a 4 front war with Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.. I guess they think if they believe hard enough, fantasies will come true, and they can hop on their unicorns and ride off into the rainbow sunset..
I maintain my opinion that the mess we witnessed in the Collective West today was caused by the failure of the education which began to go downhill in the 1980s, and accelerated in the last decade to the point where people began to have problems with elementary Biology!
The narcissistic decadence of the ruling elite only created a mass of ignorant people who masked their ignorance by creating and foisting on their citizens bs to the point where the society become absorbed in Mass Delusions and regard anything outside the bubbles an affront to be cancelled post haste.
General Petraeus will not be spewing the bs had the “Journalist” been willing to practice real journalism, instead of playing the stenographers. The questions that were asked suggest that the reporter does not read much and is totally ignorant of the realities on the ground.
The question I would ask anyone who believe that Ukraine can win a war against Russia is: How will you defeat a country with the largest arsenal of nuclear weapons?
Exactly.
Please check what Adm Rickover said about Soviet Education.
Adm Zumwalt: “We had to rewrite and water down our manuals three times in a decade” also see his memoir what he things about education in us.
Down the memory l.ne: What caused the change that the comic books started using complex words like “exterminate” rather than “whamm, zappp, whooshh”.
Without a doubt delusional and wishful thinking. Add obsession, obsession with Ukraine while in other theatres all indicators point to a looming debacle for US posture in the world as it actually is.
Militarily the US is getting pushed out of West Asia as the long war against Syria comes to a conclusion. The Houthis will be recognised in Yemen. Peace, horror of horrors, is breaking out.
Financially the world is learning to work around and ultimately ignore sanctions , whether from hell or elsewhere.
And then there’s China. Has Petraeus noticed that President Xi recently had a few days in Moscow, followed by China’s new Defence Minister? Both met with Putin. Here’s a prediction. China is about to lance the Taiwan boil.
I have a bad new for you. Switzerland, from three first hand experiences, is as deep in that delusion as Petraeus. Speaking with people I love about Ukraine was a painful experience each time. I got called names when I said that Ukraine bombed the Donbass or that Putin gave ample warnings beforehand or that the Minsk agreements could have prevented the running war. The lesser one is « Putinist ».
From a fourth experience, I learned that the Ukrainian ambassador in Switzerland often appears on the Swiss television. He is treated as a reference for truth. That explains to me why the answers I received were actual Ukrainian talking points I received from other sources.
My most extensive discussion gave me as reliable sources « France24, LCI, BFMTV ». If you want the level of it go for Zelensky. I could not observe a difference. Switzerland is in the Petraeus level of delusion and I do not hold my breath for the level of it in France.
My feeling is that the Swiss government succeeded in preventing inflation from running away and giving a reliable heating to everybody in Switzerland. That made her population believe Ukraine is winning and so on.
A silly idea comes to my mind: The « Credit Suisse » debacle is weird enough to have me wondering whether it was a US warning shot to the Swiss authorities. Swiss banks were forced to bend the knee in another situation. It was a seriously dishonest manipulation from the US, so I have that silly idea. In case, my baseless idea is true, this would mean that my authorities understand that sanctioning Russia is a serious breach to the biggest Swiss asset: her neutrality. I do wish it’s the case.
Thanks for the report. Reading across various authors and platforms with comments from people with rational minds all report the same: the brainwashing of European populace about the war, Ukrainians and Russians. With some countries using criminal sanctions against people supporting Russia or not going along with the narratives. Hopefully there is a silent majority to stop NATO engagement using their troops as fodder.
This son of a Dutch immigrant, David Patraeus, betrayed his wife of over 35 years and at the same time gave his paramour classified information.
Patraeus is a fundamentally-flawed man whose judgment cannot be trusted.
After his scandal he should’ve lived out his life quietly, in penance, not being a mouthpiece for more war and bloodshed.
We should not look back at those who have suspended reason, with them we lose our sense of purpose, and with those more dangerous psychopaths we lose our sense of purpose as people, we lose our soul. The Ukrainian war is over and Ukraine will cease to exist. The EU and the US are losing, and it should be called suicide.
Petraus lives up to his surname ver well indeed. In Latin, Petraus means dense, thick, very hard. I believe the proper translation in US english is thick-headed, no?
Maybe it’s just more propaganda to try to keep up support for this fiasco. Surely he can’t be that stupid, can he? It’s all so bizarre it makes Dr. Strangelove look sensible. It’s like one of those American “reality” shows that have no semblance of reality. Like “Survivor” where survival is based on ratings – votes. Nothing is real.
Maybe they think all of us are stupid enough to swallow this horse shit.
NYT’s headline from a few years back:” Petraeus Reaches Plea Deal Over Giving Classified Data to His Lover.’ Wonder what will happen to a National Guard, Airman 1st Class, who hasn’t been proven (at this time) to have shared data with anyone. Patreus isn’t delusional, he knows for a fact how gullible is the US public…after all, “All Warfare is based on deception.”
If and when Ukraine is forced to surrender, I want to read Petraeus and some of these other experts who about Russia losing the battle of Kyiv and refer to the sinking of the Moskva as a critical battle that Ukraine won.
Ass I’ve said elsewhere, the trifecta: stupid, evil, and insane.
I’ve wondered for some time, over the last 400+ days, about the captive media focusing on “Teh War” only on the front line.
Surely it is time for some reportage from the calm, tranquility and beauty of the Donbas now that it is now longer subject to Azov artillery attacks.
It would be a nice counter to show people going about their normal lives enjoying peace & security.
Can’t imagine which mainstream medium would run such stories.
Dear Mr Petraeus, Where was the Ukraine success with the army NATO trained and armed over 8 years?
awkward silence
Seems to me that if that army could not succeed, your new magical army with just a month or two of training in Germany has no chance!
‘This interview is over!
Thanks Larry!
Frankly the level of delusion among the political class all the way down to the regular Joe is hard to comprehend. Many of us really do scratch our head and wonder if they they are that stupid, or that brainwashed, or drinking their own kool-aid, deranged, or suffering from some form of pathological disorder?
However, I find it very curious that some (or many!) of my acquaintances, despite being well educated and traveled make surprising child-like remarks about the Russians, Putin, Ukraine, etc.
Recently Gonzalo Lira in one of his videos referenced to the “Asch conformity experiment” (power of conformity and normative social influence). This is the experiment where the test subject is presented with lines of obviously different lengths and through peer pressure eventually conforms to the agreeing to one line being longer/shorter than the others despite the opposite being true.
So, are we witnessing a conformity experiment on a grand scale? Some neocon with a lab coat and a clipboard must be bent over with laughter.
It is just obvious that charlatans posing as experts for NATO are keep lying in order to make sure their war business goes on. They are putting huge money in their own pockets, both the Zelinski regime and their NATO collaborators. Out of the $90 billion money sent to Ukraine so far perhaps $85 billion is promptly stolen by various players. There’s massive corruption in the Biden administration and the world is fully aware it, that’s why they want to get rid of the dollar -internationally speaking. Someone should tell the retired General David Petraeus that Russia has already achieved most of its military objective including liberation of over 20 percent of the former Ukrainian territory. If this means losing a war then what winning a war looks like?
I often watch interviews with General Ben Hodges open mouthed at his delusional views. It is very satisfying to go back and watch his interviews from a year ago predicting the imminent destruction of the Russian army. The constant reference to low morale, poor logistics and conscripts is just startling in how obviously that is wrong.
The ability of our so-called leaders is at the same time simplistic as it is diabolical. They would “NOT” be spewing the garbage they do everyday, if they didn’t know how gullible the American audience has become and the reason they do it is to the benefit of a small, but very powerful class of people called the Military Industrial Establishment, whose allegiance is owed to their one and only god, the US dollar.
Allow me to digress and show you another “earth-shattering” event that has just taken place, which will be simply ignored by most or widely and unquestionably accepted by others, as sure proof that there was “no” ill intent on the part of a certain Voting Machine Company on what history will probably describe as the last presidential election we ever had in America.
Fox has just settled out of court, a lawsuit brought against them by Dominion Voting Machines for $780 million, for having alleged that the machines “fixed” the 2020 presidential election. Not a minute of arguments were made inside a courtroom. It was simply settled as if it was all about “pocket change”. I cannot wrap my head around such a decision, unless it was all theatrics, like the theatrics of the 21 year old National Guardsman being apprehended for leaking secret docs., or the theatrics of some rogue nation blowing up NordStream, instead of the good US of A, or the theatrics of the Jan.6th non-insurrection insurrection, etc…
To the tens of millions who never did a minute’s worth of research, it looks like case open and closed, Dominion comes out smelling like a rose, there was no election fraud. But for those of us who do their diligence and remain “informed” and followed the day-by-day, minute-by-minute investigations done by some of the most brilliant mathematicians, statisticians, cyber-forensic analysts, know that what went down on Nov.4th, 2020 was mathematically IMPOSSIBLE.
So, quite probably, in order to, yet again, dispel any possible doubts that anything untoward happened on election night, somebody on behalf of Dominion, perhaps Dominion CEOs themselves told Fox: wink, wink… we give you the money…, you pretend to pay us…, case settled… we continue to sell our machines and make $$$ billions more…
If Americans, for just a few minutes a day or a week, tuned out MSM and listened to Gen. McGregor, Scott Ritter and a few others, they would come away with the total antithesis of what idiotic US Generals, many of whom padded their curriculum with degrees from the CIA ( Culinary Institute of America) and other schools, are shoving down their throats and, perhaps, we would not be embroiled in yet another “costly” debacle like we are facing, while our country goes to hell in a handbasket!
Yes, David Petraeus doesn’t look very intelligent, he talks nonsense, but he has come a long way in his military career. And not only military. Do you know about his business activities? A true American dream.
Petraeus heads the investment fund KKR, which a few years ago bought the largest media concern in the Balkans – United Group. That United Group was in a monopoly position in Serbia and Bosnia, and every time competitors asked for equal market conditions, Petraeus would threaten the leaders of the states with American sanctions.
When Serbia decided to ignore the threats and strengthen its state-owned telecom company, Petraeus’ KKR sold United Group to the British. Although Petraeus left the United Group, his spirit lived on there.
Today, even United Group’s sports TV channels spread propaganda and Russophobia. A special story is the news channel N1, officially designated as the Balkan branch of CNN, which lies 24 hours a day about the war in Ukraine. That is not enough for them, so they are asking for a ban on Serbian televisions that deviate from the narrative about “evil Russians and noble Ukrainians”.
In 2014 a guy named Fred Kaplan wrote a book called “The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War”. It looks like Patraeus and others revolutionized counter-insurgency tactics. I do not plan to read the book but apparently neither did ISIS and the Taliban; otherwise they would have surrendered.
Patreus is taking the military comedian role to a new level. Haven’t had as good a laugh at a 4+ star in quite some time.
Well deconstructed, Larray