Director of the NSA under President Ronald Reagan
Posted on 04/28/2007 9:14:39 AM PDT by leadpenny
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush should sign legislation starting the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Oct. 1, retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom said Saturday.
"I hope the president seizes this moment for a basic change in course and signs the bill Congress has sent him," Odom said, delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address.
Odom, an outspoken critic of the war who served as the Army's top intelligence officer and headed the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration, delivered the address at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. He said he has never been a Democrat or a Republican.
The general accused Bush of squandering U.S. lives and helping Iran and al-Qaida when he invaded Iraq.
"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place," he said. "The president has let (the Iraq war) proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued. He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies."
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Hey Odom..do us a favor and STAY retired...why don’t you go water your petunias and let a man lead this nation.
How can Lt. Gen. William Odom allows himeself to be used this way?
Thank you General. We’ve listened to your eloquent free speech and now we have digested the fact of the matter. To suggest there has been no change in approach would have been true six months back. Utilizing such an argument now rings of the familiar rhetoric of the defeatist leading the Democrat demand for surrender.
Now how a general could be foolish enough to think we’d miss that is beyond me.
Now we have a general reciting the Democrat talking points. As if a ribbon would make it so.
Odious Odom! Wonder whose shoes he polished and whose butt he kissed to achieve his rank. Butt-kissing generals. Time to completely reconfigure how the brass is promoted.
Well, in his long national security career Odom accumulated a stock of knowledge not available to laymen without security clearances. I’d wish to get on equal footing with him in that regard somehow, for otherwise arguing from un- or little- informed position is no fun.
Odom, you are a very stupid man.
Bill Odom ought to lock himself in a room with a revolver and do the decent thing.
Hey Odom:
“Citizens demand return of all pensions of retired generals who turn their former service into the service of a political agenda. We accepted their loyalty to serve the country, not the appeasement agenda of a political party.”
Odom is looking for another job in government in a Dem administration. ADM Crowe did something similar for Clinton and got an ambassadorship to the UK.
Why would the President sign a bill that is loaded up with billions in congressional bribes?
Reactivate, demote, retire at reduced pension.
Too many Generals floating around this country.
He needs to team up with Murtaugh who firmly thinks he should have made it to General based on what these guys keep spinning out.
Congress authorized this war. The UN went along with it. The Congress authorized regime change, democracy for Iraq, and a tribunal to try Saddam Hussein in 1998. Did the Governor of Texas mislead the House, Senate and White House in 1998?
The accusation that President Bush allowed the war “to proceed on automatic pilot” is simply the flip side of having a President who "micromanages the war." It's darned if you do; darned if you don’t. That is a classic no-win, we will blame you whatever approach. It is clearly unfair and disingenuous.
Democrats did not campaign on a cut and run strategy. But that is what they are pursuing now with the support of General Odom. They campaigned saying that they wanted change. President Bush sought to find the best in their words. He has changed from the Casey-Abizaid strategy to the Petreus-Shinsheki-McCain strategy. It seems to be working, though it still has not been fully implemented. Responsible government requires that it be given a chance.
Muslim terrorists cannot defeat the west. But the west can surrender. That is the course chosen by the Democrats and General Odom. Notice. There is no constructive strategy advanced by ANY Democrat. It is all an irresponsible game of blame Bush. If the Democrats get their way, things will get much worse. And then they will blame Bush.
I know we want peace. But we can no more choose peace than could Prime Minister Chamberlain.
Maybe his middle initial is "S".
WELL SAID!!!
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