Petraeus' CUNY Course Is A Joke

Seriously:

David Petraeus’s course description for his high-flying gig next year at CUNY is now online. The course is called “Are We on the Threshold of the North American Decade.” That sounds like a question to me, but there’s no question mark. (Though a commenter at Crooked Timber makes a good point: “Maybe it’s an exclamation. Like ‘Have we got a show for you tonight!’”)

Here’s the course description:

In this interdisciplinary seminar, students will examine in depth and then synthesize the history and trends in diverse public policy topics with a view towards recommendations for America’s leadership role in the emerging global economy.

Which prompted Yasmin Nair to suggest this alternative course title: “Can you believe that CUNY is seriously paying me this much money for this shit.” (No question mark.)
And Kieran Healy to say this:

Time was, a professional bullshitter like Tom Friedman would pretend to be a military commander like David Petraeus. Now it’s the other way around.

The man whose course description reads thus also has the gall to include in his course prerequisite this: “Excellent writing and presentation skills are a must.”

$150,000 grand for this "seminar" - and remember, it was supposed to be $200,000 before the story got some press and CUNY lowered Petraeus' pay.

This being a member of the elite, nice work if you can get it.