He told Petreaus "I hate people like that."

Fallon began to develop his own plans for withdrawal of three-quarters of the U.S. troop strength by the end of 2009. in other words, if we had listened to him, we'd be out now.

Fallon's fate we know.  Whether he was pushed out or quit in disgust, his resignation was accepted with appropriate graciousness by George Bush.  Soon, Petraeus would have his job as CENTCOM commander.  

The lesson is simple.  Despite armchair generaling about what we could have done better in Iraq, 'not disbanded the army' (but then you would lose the Shiites who demanded it,) stopped the looting, etc., there is really no good way to occupy a country.  Especially one with which you have absolutely nothing in common culturally.  The Brits stationing troops in the American colonies didn't even work out, and we all spoke the same language.  We were even related. Christian, strange-tongued giants from across the ocean are guaranteed to be expelled like your anti-bodies react after eating in a bad seafood restaurant.

General Stanley McChrystal, author of the new surge/escalation strategy, is Petraeus' handpicked successor to General McKiernan, who, writes author Jeff Huber, "apparently didn’t spend enough nights in Petraeus’ tent."

Huber wrote in the run-up to Obama's announcement of an escalation:

Gen. Stanley McChrystal...has put on quite a show of insubordination in the past month or so in an attempt to cram his escalation plan down the world’s throat. He has waged open information warfare in the media, right-wing and otherwise, against President Barack Obama. I wonder how much longer Obama will put up with it. More to the point, I wonder if he can stand up to it.

The main thing to remember about McChrystal is that he’s part of the "King David" Petraeus court, and Petraeus is now a de facto Praetorian governor as head of Central Command (CENTCOM) and the most powerful officer in the U.S. military....About halfway through September, media leaks suggested McChrystal might resign if he didn’t get his way on the Afghanistan escalation. Then he leaked his grim assessment of Afghanistan to Bob Woodward of the Washington Post that warned the mission would fail if he didn’t get more troops assigned there.

Of Petreaus, Huber observes:

Petraeus...is used to ignoring the chain of command...As commander in Iraq, Petraeus consistently went behind then-CENTCOM chief Adm. William Fallon’s back to get what he wanted directly from the White House. The Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), the Middle East commando unit McChrystal ran as a three-star, appears to have been taking orders directly from Dick Cheney, who as vice president had no legal standing in the military chain of command at all. Journalist Seymour Hersh called the JSOC "an executive assassination ring."

Admiral Fallon while CENTCOM commander ordered his subordinates not to use the term "long war,"  a phrase Bush and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates used to describe the fight against terrorism.  Fallon was concerned that the concept of a long war would alienate Middle East publics by suggesting that U.S. troops would remain in the region indefinitely.

Boston University professor and retired Army officer Andrew Bacevich says Iraq "is bizarrely trumpeted in some quarters as a ’success’ and even more bizarrely seen as offering a template for how to turn Afghanistan around."

Gen. Ray Odierno, now commander in Iraq, says the insurgency there may go on for another 15 years. With an escalation of 30,000 troops as fuel for a tribal society which will react by expelling us like a bad bug, the insurgency in Afghanistan could go on for another 50, unless we get out.

Huber says:

That suits the long-war cartel just fine. As tax dollar rip-offs go, it’s as good as the bank bailout. Defense contracts for all my Facebook friends!

Somberly, Huber makes a compelling comparison between the stage American democracy has arrived at and the Roman Empire:

The neocons...wanted to turn America into a 21st-century version of ancient Rome. Like Rome, we are about to become captives of our Praetorian Guard, our military elites, the likes of Stan McChrystal and his mentor Petraeus and their puppet boss, Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Niccolo Machiavelli noted, the ascendance of the Praetorian Guard caused the fall of Rome...The Praetorian Guard became "insolent and formidable" and "put many emperors to death and then disposed of the empire as it pleased."

Huber says that unless Obama can get control of our modern Praetorians, our republic will become, once and for all, a militaristic oligarchy.

The appropriate committees of the US Congress must open an investigation of the leak of the classified report by which CENTCOM may have engaged in a political ploy to constrain the options of the elected president.  The investigation can be avoided by both General David Petraeus and General Stanley McChrystal resigning their commands immediately.