Dumb idea. GEN Petraeus is serving the country superbly but the scale of forces involved does not compare to those under the command of Ike, Brad, and Mac. We don't make good company commanders colonels just because they are doing a good job commanding a company.
Or a compromise, if dumb idea gives a hint of being too judgemental and not inclusive of other points of view. If Afghanistan turns out well, make GEN Petraeus a 5 star after a 193 year interval like we did with G. Washington.
The fifth star hasn't always had a stellar pedigree. William Manchester's American Caesar doesn't exactly paint a flowery portrait of MacArthur. Fleet Admiral's Leahy and King were political creatures whose fifth star was largely a reward for proximity to power. Halsey made some fairly large mistakes, the largest of which was sailing his fleet into a typhoon and killing a lot of his men. I'm hard pressed to find an exemplary reason for Hap Arnold's fifth star.
A decent argument could be made that a fifth star is more political reward than merit based. As Zen points out, the only functional way Petraeus could wear a fifth star would be as CJCS, the most political position in the military. While I can respect the purist's views that these wars have not been wars of national survival, they've been wars nonetheless.
If the criteria is a 'win' in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan, then Petraeus should be giving back some tarnished metal.
On the other hand, if you like sycophantic knob polishing, he's your guy:
http://www.pierretristam.com/Bobst/07/wf100507.htm
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