Petraeus drops banana peel under Cheney's gospel

A WEEK or so has passed since Gen. Petraeus, once the revered Pericles of the Bush administration,  dropped a banana peel under the right-wing argument against closing Guantanamo while also criticizing our harsh interrogation methods on detainees.  

In case you missed it (it wasn't that big of a deal in the mainstream press) here are  precise quotes of his remarks  during a Fox News interview):

"Well, it's not for a soldier to say (where the detainees should be transferred to).  What I do support is what has been termed the responsible closure of Gitmo.  Gitmo has caused us problems, there's no question about it.  I oversee a region in which the existence of Gitmo has been used by the enemy against us.  We have not been without missteps or mistakes in our activity since 9/11 and again Gitmo is a lingering reminder for the use of  some in that regard. "

And later in the interview regarding ending extreme interrogation - i.e., torture.

"Well, actually what I would ask is, does that not take away from our enemies a tool which again  have beaten  us around the head and shoulders in the court of public opinion?  When we have taken steps that have violated the Geneva Conventions, we rightly have been criticized, so as we move forward I think it's important to again live our values, to live the agreements that we have made in the international  justice arena and to practice those."

Violated the Geneva Conventions!  The very same conventions that Bush Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzalez dismissed  as "quaint"?  Alberto, you have a problem.  

 Except for the carnivores on the the right, who see the general flirting with  the edge of treason,  the response to Petraeus's comments has been strangely muted.  He has dashed the Dick- and- Liz Cheney show's rationale for harshly declaring that President Obama has made America "less safe."  To Obama, must we  now add  Petraeus to satisfy the carnivores?  For Cheney, who is trying save his skin by becoming a TV chatterbox as a bookend with his daughter, I think he would have been better off to quit while he was behind.