Today Gates is in the news because his statements about the Afghanistan strategy for 2011 are diametrically opposed to those recently made by Petraeus. This begs the question: “who speaks for Mr. Obama, Gates or Petraeus? Normally one would say Gates because our Armed Forces are supposed to be controlled by civilians but with a weathercock in the White House there is no telling so don’t bet on Gates

As long as we’re into prophesy here, try this for size:
  Gates retires now in order to run on the Republican ticket for President in 2012,
  Republicans win a landslide victory, thanks to the cooperation of a radical right wing calling itself “White is Right!”
  The “Afghan” War winds down. Mining equipment has been shipped into Afghanistan from South Africa, and gold and jewels are rolling out into the hands of “corrupt officials” related to Karzai. The poppy fields are now in the hands of a Mexican cartel.
  Petreus is back in the States and considering the job of Secretary of Defense under Gates.
  The military-industrial complex owns and operates most of the economic “system” of the country, except for the fast food industry, which is maintained by a private contractor with strong ties to the Department of Agriculture. Together they are the main suppliers of jobs.
  A few protesting citizens recently lost their lives in a scuffle over low wage jobs in St.Louis, carrying a banners reading “Tear Down That Walmart!”
  The majority of citizens, being told by the major media that “our democractic way of life” will be lost without the strong guidance of the Pentagon” settle back for an evening of TV with popcorn.
  The Internet has been legally destroyed.

And a shit filled bag labeled “civilization.”

Or perhaps they all know something not suitable for mainstream
consumption.

Something like resource consumption to population ratios being
way past the “overshoot and collapse” mark in the sand. Or,
climate change’s rapid acceleration and the ensuing eco system
failure (read food to population ratios). Or, perhaps that all the
money that could be squeezed from “we the people” has been
pocketed and along with the ponzi scheme called the economy is
teetering on toothpick awaiting the next breeze. Or all of the
above. Or much more…

I’m not a conspiracy theorist by any means but I’m willing to wager
it all that there are those in the rich, elite and powerful circles that
are ready for most anything. Watch you’ll see more of this in the
next few years.

Can the Wealthy Have A Separate Peace? - Revisited
http://campfire.theoildrum.com/node/6823

McChrystal engineered his escape, now Gates.  Petraeus has probably already made a deal with Obama.  He (Petraeus) will rig some metric laden bullshit story for public consumption in 2011 that will pass for victory in Afghanistan, or at least “substantial progress”.  The streetwalkers of the MSM will disseminate this fiction to the totally gullible and uninformed American public.  The payoff for Petraeus is that Obama will make him a 5-star general.  Petraeus will then retire and, after a “decent interval”, enter politics. Obama will be left holding the soggy, shit filled brown paper bag labelled “Afghanistan”.