Perfect line and good for U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert for saying it.
His whole quote:
"My faith and trust is in General Petraeus, not in General Pelosi or the 435 members of Congress, The public doesn't have faith in the president or Congress, but do express trust in the generals. When you think about it, we have trusted our generals in the past ... Grant, Eisenhower, George Washington. It has always been hard and the American people had to be patient."
More on his comments from the Seattle Times:
Rep. Dave Reichert returned from an intense two-day tour of Iraq last weekend concerned about the lack of political progress among Iraqis, but still supporting the current war strategy.
"It's not all rosy," Reichert, R-Auburn, said Friday. "But you can feel it just turning to more of a positive. At least people are beginning to see that."
He and four other members of Congress were in Iraq just before Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander there, told House and Senate committees that the troop escalation has improved security in some parts of the country.
"I am conflicted," Reichert said. He acknowledged the lack of progress in forming a functional Iraqi central government and said he's concerned about the war's costs.
But overall, he said Congress should "trust General Petraeus."
"We can come back with our heads held high if we allow General Petraeus to finish this war," Reichert said.
The latest Rasmussen poll shows that Reichert is right, the American public does trust the General more than Congress or the President, which we brought to our readers on September 13, 2007.
Forty-three percent (43%) of Americans favor the recommendation made by General David Petraeus to withdraw 30,000 soldiers from Iraq but leave 130,000 troops in place at least through the summer. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 38% are opposed and 19% are not sure.
The survey also found that Americans may have resigned themselves to the fact that U.S. troops are likely to remain in Iraq for a long time. Seventy-one percent (71%) say that it is somewhat or very likely that “a large number of U.S. soldiers will remain in Iraq five years from today.” That would mean a large troop presence in Iraq when the next President’s first term is drawing to a close.
Petraeus testified before Congress for two days this week and effectively recommended that the U.S. troop strength in Iraq return to levels that existed before the “surge” launched earlier in the year. President Bush is expected to endorse the Petraeus recommendation in a nationally televised address tonight.
Even President Bush's numbers have modestly, very modestly risen in these last few days.
There are a lot of arm chair generals in our country, people that think that because they watch the news at night or can search news stories online that they are qualified to make military decisions.
They aren't. The General is, he lives in Iraq for the time being, our soldiers do because they too are there and have the information that does get shown to us, the American people, on the nightly news.
Congress, nor the Senate have anyone even remotely qualified or that has even a quarter of the experience that General Petraeus has.
35+ years of serving our country and he wrote the manual on counter insurgency tactics, the same ones he is implementing now and seeing such progress and success with.
Despite the considerable amount of time and money spent trying to discredit General Petraues because he did the unthinkable, he came up with a winning strategy and he started seeing success, no one has been able to show one single piece of evidence proving that his service record isn't as outstanding as it is, no one has been able to provide one past document showing he lied about anything, ever.
The make baseless allegations, providing nothing but words with no evidence to back them up and the American people are showing, by the polls, that they aren't buying the attempts to disparage the General.
The whole speech that General Petraeus gave can be found here, for those that have not read it.
He does not shy away from the realities, the challenges and the difficulties that we face in Iraq, and he also points out what we do not see in the news, the progress, the rebuilding and the success that our fine troops are seeing.
Those that call his credibility into question are losing their own credibility because they cannot provide any proof of their allegations and his service to our country IS his proof.
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