A string of retired military officers took the stand at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee hearings to enumerate all the ways Donald Rumsfeld sucks.
“I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq,” retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste said…
A second witness, retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically ….”
Well yeah, but except for that —
“Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making,” he added…
[Retired Col. Paul X.] Hammes said in his prepared remarks that not providing the best equipment was a “serious moral failure on the part of our leadership.”
…Batiste, Eaton and Hammes were unsparing in remarks that suggested deep anger at the way the military had been treated. All three served in Iraq…
[Batiste] said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.
4,000 Troops are Being Extended
And speaking of the Bush administration’s flawed plan for Iraq, it looks like 4,000 troops scheduled to come home aren’t. Someone leaked the crappy news to the press.
The Army has extended the combat tours of about 4,000 soldiers who would otherwise be returning home, a defense official said Monday.
The 1st Brigade of 1st Armored Division, which is operating in the vicinity of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, will be kept in place for several weeks beyond their scheduled departure…
The 1st Brigade…was extended to allow its replacement unit, from the 3rd Infantry Division, the minimum 12 months between overseas tours, the official said. The 3rd Infantry has served two tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion of the country in March 2003…
Until sectarian violence spiked early this year, Bush administration officials had voiced hopes that this election year would see significant U.S. troop reductions in what has become a widely unpopular war.
The British Have Saved Our Asses Again
One of the S-K-Ps from the Afghanistan prison right under our noses last year was killed by troops from the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment.
[Omar] Farouq was one of four al Qaeda suspects who broke out of the prison in Bagram, the main U.S. base in Afghanistan, in July 2005.
It was an embarrassing incident for the U.S. military, and the Pentagon waited until November to confirm that the man had escaped. The delay in releasing his name upset Indonesia, which had arrested Farouq in 2002 and then turned him over to the United States — which then shipped him to Afghanistan.
After escaping, the al Qaeda leader and the three others had managed to evade a massive manhunt. They later appeared in a video sent to the Dubai-based television station Al-Arabiya and boasted of their feat.
Those men didn’t escape. They were let loose then helped to disappear. Come on now, let’s not be gullible. Our incredibly dishonest government is working with a lot of so called terrorists, as they always have.
It is hard to believe that we have
let this get to this point…after
impeaching the former president
for a lapse in moral judgement!~
I am floored…it was like they had
plan, when they came in…to bring
on the Project…and if anyone denounced it….they were aiding
and abetting the terrorists…and
it worked…dammit it worked!
Oh, isn’t this just heart-sickining? The military people completely gave themselves over to Bush in the elections. Now, they have no ecquitment, no plans for it, no other soldiers, no anything….no medical services, no retirement services…no care, period. I, truly, love them to pieces, but, how on earth, why on earth, could they have voted themselves into this situation?
Emotion. That’s all. They simply loved seeing him in his uniform on the boat in San Diego Bay. They believed him when he said the war was over.
And then, he takes away their benefits, he takes away their capacity to do their jobs, he takes away every promise the armed services made to them when they joined up, he takes away the care all the rest of us would give to them in their extemity….meaning, health care.
My heart, truly and really, goes out to those who told George W.Bush to do this to our military people and to the rest of us. Problem is, it is a diaster beyond beyond.
Don’t believe it? Believe that it is, and has been , the absolutely right course of action?
Then, make sure, the next time you are in Costco and run into someone in a wheelchair with his uniform on and no legs – tell him, or her, in person —-oh, oh, oh don’t look away – stop, and tell them you are fighting for them…tell them you, yes, YOU, are fighting to get them a new life because they gave their life for YOU. Fat chance.
These are Military, Military who led troops on THE frontlines IN Iraq in the WOT. And they’re furious. And they’re damning the inactions of a notoriously draftdodging administration. This comes at exactly the same time as the classified NIE exclaiming the same administration has exacerbated the WOT. Incredible! In a normal world, this would be very hard to swallow, people would have fits! But we don’t have to wonder how this information is going to affect the rule of the Meanies. No, not when we see how expertly the Swifties stage manage the audience. No, not when we merchandising consumer units fear Bird Flu and still swirl aspartame into our coffee. No, not when our DNI thinks he’s still working his Honduras-husher gig. He says the National Intelligence Estimate, based on 16 intelligence agencies including the CIA, is just one of many opinions focused through a prism. A prism? Like perhaps a conspiracy theory prism? A Demo-prism? A confused prism? Earthshattering, isn’t it? But its just another paragraph in the script as we swirl down deeper into the great abyss from which there is no return.
Isn’t it amazing? The whole mess based on a lie!! Iraqi women and children slaughtered!! Our precious youth being cut down before even having a chance to live!! You know it always seems that the ones who have never fought (Bush,Rove,Cheney)never think twice about putting our service men in harm’s way!! Please God help us get out of this nightmare!!
Banjo,
The military did not give themselves over to Bush in the election. While I am sure many voted for him, I have never seen such opposition to a president, Republican or Democrat, or to his war in Iraq since I was commissioned in 1960.
The military has nothing but scorn for Bush, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and all the rest of the war crazed cowardly, draft dodging neocons. They are forced to express their opposition via surrogates such as John Murtha and retired officers such as General Batiste.
The “out cast” MEL GIBSON called it TRUE TO THE CORE when he observed that THIS BUSH WAR is nothing short of HUMAN SACRIFICE OF HUMAN LIVES on the alter of the BUSH/CHENEY/ROVE/RUMSFELD FASCIST CABAL’S extremely HUBERISTIC drive to FASCIST POWER!
The facts speak for themselves and no amount of “propaganda” or “spin” is going to alter the truth they speak one iota!