why did general petraeus faint at a congressional hearing

This one was quite surrealistic.

General Petraeus is the only leader the Jihadi's actually fear.

He is the hero who gives them the war they still can't quite believe.

But his capacity to bring the fight to the Mussies has been seriously undermined by President Bush's departure from the White House and the accession to power of the hippy lawyer Barack Obama.

Bear in mind it took President Bush seven years wading through Clinton era appointee generals who were cool about their sexualities but didn't know how to fight a war, before he found a general who actually knew how to spill some blood and guts and scare Al Qaeda and the Iranians out of their tiny cotton picking Muslim minds.

As a matter of policy, Barack Obama has been seeking to undo the victories of the Bush Administration.

For the past two years, General Petraeus has seen his freedom of action seriously curtailed simply because Barack Obama wants to cut and run from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The victories in Iraq have been diminished by Barack Obama's attempts to repudiate the American army's liberation of Iraq from Saddam Hussein's murderocracy and thereby criminalise President Bush.

General Petraeus' capacity for action in Afghanistan has been similarly limited by Barack Obama's shameful footdragging in the allocation of new troops and the cretinous early annoucement of withdrawal timetables.

Way to give the Jihadi's something to fight for Barack.

Seriously though, he's doing a brilliant job.

Last week Senator John McCain was questioning General Petraeus about the state of play in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Senator McCain had just asked did General Petraeus approve of President Barack Obama's stated intention to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan in 2011.

General Petraeus had given what he thought was a non committal answer, hedging about his reluctance to set specific dates.

Senator John McCain sat bolt upright.

His question had related to the fact that President Obama has just announced a specific date for withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He sensed a possible divergence between President Obama and his senior battlefield commander.

Senator McCain respectfully repeated the question.

And General Petraeus keeled over in a dead faint.

Here is the news.

General Petraeus was not dehydrated.

General Petraeus was not struck by a sudden heart attack, arrhythmia or shortness of breath.

General Petraeus' collapse had nothing to do with his health.

There was nothing wrong with General Petraeus whatsoever.

When Senator McCain repeated his question about President Obama's troop withdrawal policies, General Petraeus realised he had to answer either with the truth that President Obama's strategy was destroying the American war effort, or falsely that he thought President Obama's strategy was a good one.

General Petraeus could either speak the truth that he knows full well, namely that Barack's drawdown of troops in Iraq has already all but snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, and that his announcement of a similar timetable for a drawdown in Afghanistan is the single most vitalising factor at present for Al Qaeda's jihadi's and their sponsors Iran and Syria.

Or General Petraeus could procrastinate, dissimulate, lie, and pretend that the President's policies had his full support.

Senator McCain's restatement of the question suddenly made procrastination and dissimulation untenable.

And General Petraeus has never been much inclined towards lying anyway.

You can understand his dilemma.

General Petraeus was understandably reluctant to betray American soldiers who are dying precisely because Barack Obama's timetables for withdrawal have reinvigorated the Jihadi's.

But General Petraeus was also reluctant to lose a job he'd spent a lifetime working towards.

General Petraeus realised quite suddenly that if he answered truthfully he would no longer be able to retain his historic position as Centcom commander overseeing the Afghan and Iraqi theatres.

Generals who publicly disagree with their Presidents do not lead armies in America.

In his heart of hearts General Petraeus decided that he didn't want to lose that job.

General Petraeus pretended to faint to avoid answering Senator McCain's question.

That is all.