Chris "West Point" Matthews - Talkng to the Enemy and Channeling Buck Laughlin

I'm Chris Matthews - tonight on Hardball - I have General Petraeus - he was in the audience at West Point last night and yeah I said it - the President was in Enemy Territory with A Bridge Too Far and Cheney under the bridge biting his ankles and our kids are staked out on anthills with the Berbers attacking like in Beau Geste.Obama "went to maybe the enemy camp last night. You were in Camp General. General, Welcome. The Surge whats with the surge, a serge used to be a fabric for men's suits - What's a surge?

Gen Petraeus - "It is to disrupt al-Qaeda and its ability to conduct sensational attacks and to try to continue the cycle of violence, which they have been trying to do all along. In addition, they are attempting try establish a real al-Qaeda sanctuary in Iraq, a caliphate."

Matthews - Excuse me if this off the subject a little bit, but just take a guess at how much I can bench press. Come on, what do you think? Take a guess. 315 pounds, at the top of my game, maxing out at 500!

Gen Petraeus - “There is a period of omnipotence. There was a period in the beginning when there was a ‘golden hour’. Inevitably, it does not matter how much you were viewed as a liberator, over time you will be seen as an occupier. The interesting dynamic here is that we have been here long enough to become liberators again for certain sectors of the population, those that are affected by extremism.”

Matthews - Doctor, question that's always bothered me and a lot of people: Mayflower, combined with Philadelphia - a no-brainer, right? Cause this is where the Mayflower landed. Not so. It turns out Columbus actually set foot somewhere down in the West Indies. Little known fact. Look at Scott! He is prancing along with the dog! Man, I tell you something, if you live in my neighborhood and you're dressed like that, you'd better be a hotel doorman.

. . . and there will always be more.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218839/quotes


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article1963400.ece