To: churchillbuff
Pat cites another great general, MacArthur, who also had the courage to blow the whistle on incompetent civilian "leadership"
MacArthur, for all of his military brilliance, was an ignoramus when it came to understanding the proper relationship between civilian control of the military, and he openly defied President Harry Truman in Korea, calling for expanded military operations against the Communist Chinese at a time when the U.S. nuclear deterrent consisted of no more than 13 atomic bombs of slightly improved Fat Man design, and those weapons were needed in the event Stalin decided to invade Western Europe, not to be applied against wave after human wave of Communist Chinese troops who would have overwhelmed the U.S./U.N. forces in Korea, and literally driven them to the sea. MacArthur did not know that, Truman did.
Make no mistake, I consider MacArthur a patriot, but he was unable to accept the fact that it was the President, not the generals in the field, who Constitutionally have the authority to make decisions as to how the military is utilized.
As for Buchanan, for all his historical knowledge and political comprehension, he has lost most of the credibility that he once had, which is why most Buchanan articles receive the comment "Pat, can we hear that in the original German?"
America is at war, and contrary to what these disgruntled officers are piping up with, the war will not be won or lost depending upon who is the SecDef, and Rumsfeld is THE most qualified SecDef we've had in there for over a decade.
I stand with Rummy.
34 posted on
04/15/2006 8:32:13 AM PDT by
mkjessup
(The Shah doesn't look so bad now, eh? But nooo, Jimmah said the Ayatollah was a 'godly' man.)
To: mkjessup
Make no mistake, I consider MacArthur a patriot, ""
So do I, and he performed an eternal service by letting Americans know that Truman was sending their sons to die without a commitment to win the war.
To: mkjessup
those weapons were needed in the event Stalin decided to invade Western Europe, not to be applied against wave after human wave of Communist Chinese troops who would have overwhelmed the U.S./U.N. forces in Korea, and literally driven them to the sea. MacArthur did not know that, Truman did.
Interesting how military history repeats itself:
The War in the Desert
The German High Command, Brauchitsch told Rommel, still planned no decisive strike in North Africa, and he could expect no reinforcements beyond the ones already promised. (Unknown to Rommel, there were prior demands on available German forces.l Hitler was about to send troops to aid Mussolini against Greece and was secretly planning an invasion of the Soviet Union.)
...
On his return [Rommel] ordered that the attack should proceed. His rationale for defying the High Command's cautious directive was that British patrols from El Agheila had been harassing supply columns bound for a German-Italian outpost at Marada, 90 miles to the south. To maintain this outpost, he had to throw the British out of El Agheila.
238 posted on
04/15/2006 11:17:43 AM PDT by
Milhous
(Sarcasm - the last refuge of an empty mind.)
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