I almost let myself feel hopeful for a second, and then I remembered I knew him when. Gates, the original fixer, did not disappoint me. He wasted no time, but got straight to carrying water for the administration and getting the Generals singing from the administrations hymnbook. That trip to Baghdad wasn't to assess the situation and move forward and if you believe it was, go look in the mirror because I will wager your upper lip is grape Kool-Aid purple. This administration is just totally fucking rotten with naked banal perfidy. I'm counting down the days and hoping for some sort of intervention in the interim, because I don't want to see what damage the idiot prince can wreck in another two years.
Does anyone else flash on Anthony, the little boy in It's a Good Life (the creepiest episode of The Twilight Zone ever) when George Bush gets petulant? (You do now. Sorry for the nightmares.)
Well, Gates is back from Baghdad, and his first week was...interesting. The Generals have done an about-face and now think more troops is a good idea. The president wants additional troops, although we aren't sure which 20,000 he has in mind - Does he mean 20,000 total, which would put about 7000-8000 pairs of boots on the ground? Or does it mean 20,000 ground-pounders and 30-40,000 support personnel for a troop buildup of 50-60,000? They aren't saying. But if it's the former, they aren't going to be very effective, and if it's the latter it will place a strain on the armed services that could potentially have significant long-range consequences for our military capabilities and readiness.
Every officer holds a special position of moral trust and responsibility. No officer will ever violate that trust or avoid his responsibility for any of his actions regardless of the personal cost. An officer is first and foremost a leader of men. He must lead his men by example and personal actions. Troops must be led; and an officer must therefore set the standard for personal bravery and leadership. All officers are responsible for the actions of all their brother officers. The dishonorable acts of one officer diminishes the corps; the actions of the officer must always be above reproach.They were honor-bound to stick to their guns - so to speak. The Generals sold their souls, and they abandoned their troops. There is no honor among them. They are craven, and they are feckless. In my heart I have torn the stars from their epaulets and cast them into the mud. They do this, while a thousand of the troops they are supposed to lead, many of them officers, have signed an Appeal for Redress, and many more are engaging in protected communications with their represetatives in congress? They do this when they were sent into an unwinnable war based on phonied intelligence? They dishonor the men and women who served under them and made the ultimate sacrifice by playing politics with war. They punked their troops. No, I turn my face away from them. They are a shameful, pitiful disgrace to the uniforms they tarnish every time they don the cloth.
I know, pretty strong words. But that is exactly how I feel. It took thirty years to build the all volunteer military; then they let George play with it, and now it's broken. And when the Generals had a chance to stand firm, they crumbled like sugar cookies. Abizaid is retiring, but he is going along too. Perhaps not enthusiastically, but he isn't making any statements of principle, either.
The General's really blew it. They had a golden opportunity to not only lead, but boost enlistments and applications to OCS in evey branch, and elevate the character of the military leadership in the public mind; and then they didn't stand up like men. Imagine...Three flag-ranks - who were junior officers during the Viet nam war, so they know what it feels like to get punked by the top brass - stand up to the Fixer and threaten to resign if this wacky scheme is given any traction at all. Imagine the popular support they would have had! A whopping 11% of American support a troop buildup. But instead, the feckless Generals went along with the feckless president; and now they are all doomed to join Westmoreland in the Hall of Shame.
