A Letter To Centcom

Glenn Greenwald tests the ideological waters:

I am a Contributing Writer at Salon Magazine and a contributor to the nationally syndicated Alan Colmes Show on radio.

I am writing to request an interview with General David Petraeus, to be broadcast in its entirety on the Alan Colmes Show, along with a full, unedited transcript to be published as the feature story on Salon.

There was some controversy triggered when Gen. Petraeus this week gave an exclusive interview to highly partisan, pro-war Republican talk show host and blogger Hugh Hewitt.  Concerns were expressed that Gen. Petraeus was submitting to interviews only with those who have a reputation for conducting highly reverent and uncritical interviews with Bush officials and military commanders.

As a fervent supporter of the Bush administration and the Iraq war, Hewitt's questions were, as one would expect, designed to enable Gen. Petraeus to make statements without any questioning or challenge.

As I am much more of a war skeptic than Hewitt, both the questions I would pose and the audience which would be exposed to the interview would be different than the one Gen. Petraeus conducted with Hewitt.  It is my sincere hope that Gen. Petraeus, in order to facilitate as honest and robust a public discussion as possible, is willing to discuss the situation in Iraq and the merits of the current strategy with both supporters and critics of the initiative.

According to publicly available reports, the audience size for the Hugh Hewitt Show is roughly equal to the audience size for the Alan Colmes Show.  The readership of Salon is vastly larger than the readership of Hewitt's blog.  Thus, the interview I am requesting with Gen. Petraeus would be for a larger audience than the Hewitt interview, and presumably, the audience would reach a much different segment of the American political landscape.

All Americans, across the political spectrum, are deeply interested in the events in Iraq.  I would think that Gen. Petraeus would be interested in reaching as many Americans as possible with his assessments, not only those who are already political supporters of the current administration.

I would make myself available for any date and time that is convenient for Gen. Petraeus and would look forward to a real opportunity to hear from the General in a civil and constructive setting.

We'll see, won't we?