democracyarsenal.org: Petraeus's Employee Self Evaluation

May 29, 2007

Petraeus's Employee Self Evaluation
Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

So would this ever happen in the corporate world? You have an employee. He’s doing a job. You ask him to evaluate how he is doing his job. You base your entire evaluation on his own assessment without getting any objective outside input. Sounds ridiculous doesn’t it. But that’s exactly what President Bush wants us to do when evaluating whether or not the “surge” is working.

We are supposed to sit tight and wait for General Petraeus to deliver his report in September and tell us how well he is doing his job. Then based on his own self evaluation Congress should make a decision. The conflict of interest is brutally obvious. Petraeus is inextricably tied to the “surge”. Concluding that it isn’t working would be a huge blow to his own career and legacy. Not to mention any political aspirations that he may have after life in the military. He has also realized that one of the centers of gravity for the war is American public support. Without it the war can’t go on and his strategy has no chance. He seems to be taking it upon himself to try and build that support. Finally, there is his previous behavior. Larry Korb points out that Petraeus has injected himself into politics before, writing an op-ed six weeks before the 2004 election arguing that the Iraq Security Force training was going well. Keeping all of this in mind, it’s not surprising to see reports that military leaders are already starting to move the goal posts on the September report so that they can project an image of success instead of failure.

I can tell you what the Petraeus report will say. It’s what every employee self evaluation says. “I’m doing a great job, but just to show you that I’m a modest guy here are some areas where I can improve.”

What any CEO would tell you is that this project needs some kind of outside review process. Are Lee Hamilton and James Baker available?

May 29, 2007 at 03:33 PM | Permalink

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May 29, 2007

Petraeus's Employee Self Evaluation
Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

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May 29, 2007

Petraeus's Employee Self Evaluation Posted by Ilan Goldenberg

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Petraeus's Employee Self Evaluation
Posted by Ilan Goldenberg