Gen. Richard Myers, the retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Tommy Franks, the retired commander of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, both appeared on cable TV news shows to criticize former colleagues for publicly questioning the civilian leadership while the nation remains at war. "My whole perception of this is it's bad for the military, and for military relations, and it's very bad for the country, potentially, because what we are hearing and what we are seeing is not the role the military should be playing in our society," Myers said.
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Paul Van Riper said in an interview Friday that "Rumsfeld has failed in a number of ways, including "disastrous" war planning and execution and fostering a poor command climate." Yesterday, General Thomas G. McInerney said, "Now, think about that statement. Coming off of a war in Afghanistan the U.S. Military defeats the largest military in the middle east in 21 days and that's called disastrous war planning and execution?" I have a hard time understanding how anyone with enough thinking power to tie their own shoes cannot recognize this as propaganda and bull-o-knee! Has anyone noticed that not one single Admiral or Air Force General has been complaining. Can a reasonable deduction be made from this coincidence? Is it possible that Rumsfeld's reorganization of the military which openly supports additional naval and air assets and a smaller Army and Marine Corps has anything to do with this? General Wayne Downing made an intriguing comment this morning 4/15/06 on NBC's Today show, implying that a number of the Rumsfeld critics have ulterior motives: "One of these guys is writing a book. One or more of them have political aspirations. One of them has had his favorite program, the program that he worked on for the last three or four years while he was in the military, skewered by Secretary Rumsfeld. Others were not promoted for one reason or another." I find it both humorous and shameful that people assume that a handful of Generals complaining about the Secretary of Defense are somehow quote-worthy and correct, when the Generals that actually planned and executed the most brilliant defeat in military history and disagree with these whiners are somehow idiots. The argument that a handful out of over 8,000 living active duty and retired flag officers is proof of anything beyond squat is laughable. |
