Petraeus says he's not interested in presidency

Iraq war commander cites Gen. Sherman when asked

	Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for U.S. troops in Iraq, appears at a graduation ceremony for 700 Iraqi National Police cadets in Baghdad, Iraq, Dec. 18.
Khalid Mohammed / AP file

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updated 12:05 p.m. ET Dec. 23, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush's top Iraq war commander said Sunday that as far as he knows, his command performances now and in the future will be strictly military, not political.

In fact, Army Gen. David Petraeus cited the words of Civil War-era Gen. William T. Sherman in declaring he has no interest in shedding his uniform and running for the White House, as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower did 55 years ago.

"None," Petraeus replied, when asked on "Fox News Sunday" if he had an interest in running.

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"I have great respect for those who do choose to serve our country in that way. I've chosen to serve our country in uniform," Petraeus said from Baghdad.

"And I think that General Sherman had it right when he gave what is now commonly referred to as a Shermanesque response when asked a similar question."

A leading Union general in the war, Sherman said in a telegram to the Republican National Convention in 1884, when he was being urged to run for president, "I will not accept if nominated, and I will not serve if elected," according to "The Yale Book of Quotations."