General David A. Petraeus is in town to help out with the Army's new promotion board. He took time off from beating the crap out the evil vampire orcs in Iraq to help the Army get its golden thumb out of its tuckas and select 40 new brigadiers from a pool of 1000 Colonels. This action of recalling a highly successful war general to help with promotions is extremely unusual and overdue. In fact this move may wipe out the shame and stupidity of the Army's "still stupid after all these years" bonehead move of ignoring Colonel H.R. McMaster promotion not once but twice. Nothing says FOSSIL like ignoring your absolute best leaders like this:
Outside the Beltway:
Now you may be thinking, wasn’t it H.R. McMaster that led the pacification of Tal Afar, an operation so successful that Bush devoted an entire speech to it just last year? Didn’t I read about McMaster’s brilliant strategy in a long New Yorker piece about him? Wasn’t it McMaster who won a Silver Star in the Gulf War, leading troops so bravely and well that Tom Clancy wrote it up? And surely it was McMaster who’s PhD dissertation became a hugely influential book, Dereliction of Duty, that the then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs made required reading for senior military types?
Why is this invitation to the general so important. The move is intended to send a clear message to the young turks, Lieutenants, Captains, Majors that the old mossbacks are not completely in charge and that new ideas, innovation will be rewarded first before considerations of recent postings to obscure but necessary for promotion bases. McMaster is the litmus test. If he doesn't get Brigadier this time this is all evidence the Army is still stuck on stupid.
