September 13, 2007
American Caesars Posted by Alexander Burns at 12:50 PM EST There’s a report in today’s Independent that Gen. David H. Petraeus, the man currently directing American forces in Iraq, “expressed long-term interest in running for the US presidency when he was stationed in Baghdad, according to a senior Iraqi official who knew him at that time.” This story follows a feature in Mother Jones earlier this week that reported: “Petraeus’s leadership qualities, combined with his role as the Bush administration’s last hope for saving face in Iraq, has set off speculation that the general could run for office some day—possibly the presidency, in 2012.” Whether Petraeus actually has any political ambitions, there are people who hope he does. Last week, the New York Sun published an editorial urging Petraeus to tell Congress that he needed its full support for the Iraq war, and that if he didn’t receive it he would resign and run for President. The Sun’s editorial, which I think could be charitably called insane, counseled an essentially Bonapartist course of action. If Petraeus had threatened Congress this week, it would have undermined America’s long tradition of subordinating the military to the elected, democratic branches of government. It would not, however, have been entirely without precedent. The episode in 1951 in which President Truman fired General MacArthur for insubordination, only to have MacArthur return to the United States to lead a public relations offensive against him, is well known. What’s less well known, however, is that MacArthur actually attempted the course the Sun prescribes for Petraeus. After the famous New York parade in his honor, which drew millions of viewers, MacArthur intended to drum up support for a presidential bid with a speaking tour in Texas and a campaign to draft himself for the White House. But when Gen. Omar Bradley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Congress that MacArthur’s desired strategy in Korea would have left Europe vulnerable and engaged the United States in “the wrong war at the wrong place at the wrong time and with the wrong enemy,” the so-called “American Caesar” found his political prospects fatally damaged. Niall Ferguson has called 1951 “perhaps the only moment in its history that the American Republic came close to meeting the fate of the Roman Republic.” And indeed, no military officer since MacArthur has tried to defy civilian power so brazenly. Even General Petraeus, who some believe is too close to the President to be trusted as an independent assessor of the Iraq war, doesn’t seem interested in attempting such a dangerous stunt as the Sun suggested. “Caesar Petraeus” has a catchy ring to it, but—for now at least—the general isn’t biting. It would be best for the country, and for the good name of the military, if things stayed that way.
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