"Where Do We Get Such Men?"

On Thursday I had a rather unique, coincidental, experience of seeing two great Americans on the same day. In the morning I witnessed President Obama's entry to Manhattan for his speech at Cooper Union on the pending legislation for financial reform of Wall Street.  The East River heliport is directly opposite our apartment and my ears first noted that there were no incoming helicopters.  It's odd how a lack of noise can be a sound in itself.  I glanced outside and noticed a few police boats and then realized that they must be prepping for Obama's visit.  I watched the preparations for over 90 minutes, standing much of the time with my camera at the ready. More boats and even a Coast Guard cutter assembled.  Periodically a NYPD helicopter surveyed the area.   I assumed that if his speech was at 11:05 (as indicated on the White House web site) he'd land around between 10 and 10:30 but I discovered that Presidents can arrive when they want to, and his helicopter didn't land until around 11:30 (unfortunately my camera clock is not set properly so I don't have the accurate time).  I had waited so long, and so patiently, that I called Greg excitedly when the first green army helicopters (shown on the right) landed and told him Obama had landed.  Then I went to use the toilet, which I had put off for 90 minutes, only to hear the chop, chop, chop of new helicopters.  I realized "holy moley...those weren't the presidential helicopters I saw" and rushed back out in disarray to take several photos of the more impressive presidential helicopters.  The photo is from a distance and everyone looks like little dots.  But this is a digital picture and I can zoom in and see an out- of-focus Obama stepping off the helicopter.  The disturbing realization was that if I could zoom in on our President with a Nikon D80, it would be easier than we'd like to think for someone in any of these apartments to zoom in with something more sinister.  Obama is just getting his stride and accomplishing great things- I truly believe he will have an historic presidency but worry that he will be harmed and not able to complete his destiny. 

Thursday evening I went up to the 92nd Street Y to hear a conversation between General David Petraeus and Richard Haas (of the Council on Foreign Relations).  The "conversation" was introduced by Richard Holbrook, the current special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.  This was an excellent opportunity to get updated on the current situation from the perspective of the military and the Obama administration.  I had read an excellent overview of Petraeus by Mark Bowden in the current issue of Vanity Fair prior to the event so I had a bit more appreciation for this military leader than I would have otherwise.  The 92nd Street Y is not Fox News and the audience are typically New York liberals.  There were a handful of protesters outside.   Yet Petraeus is an impressive, thoughtful, intelligent military leader who firmly believes in his counter-insurgency stragegy and with it  transparency and respect for the civilian.  Earlier this week I caught Dexter Filkins on NPR's Fresh Air with Terri Gross.  Filkin's is a NY Times war correspondent and I've always been impressed with his dispatches from Iraq and Afghanistan and I was especially impressed by one observation on Fresh Air.  Filkins talked about being imbedded with a unit in the current Marjan offensive.  This platoon had just missed being blasted by an IED.  Yet while these young men were talking to local citizens, Filkins says they were impeccably courteous and respectful.  Filkins said it was dramatic evidence of how the new counter-insurgency policy was being transmitted all the way down the lines. Having heard this very dramatic story on Tuesday, I was prepared to be impressed by Petraeus on Thursday.  And I was-he was humble, funny, forthright and used a lot of Power Points!  I'm sure this was a big public relations campaign but it was very effective. I know some of my readers believe we should withdraw immediately, but I am prepared to respect the judgment of President Obama, David Petraeus, Richard Holbrook and Hillary Clinton on the very dangerous political/military situation in that volatile part of the world.

The title for this blog entry was taken from the Bridges of Toko-ri and used by the President of the 92nd Street Y when he introduced David Petraeus.  From what I've learned about him recently, I was inclined to agree with the rhetorical question.  But not everyone does, and when he moved to his next sentence "I'm proud to introduce General David Petraeus" a young man two rows in front of me jumped up and shouted "War Criminal!"  His outburst was not appreciated by the liberal audience, which says something for the respect in which the 92nd Street Y was willing to have for this conversation.