Posted on 05/02/2006 9:23:58 AM PDT by RWR8189
Today I finished the book "Cobra II," written by retired Marine Gen. "Mick" Trainer and New York Times correspondent Mike Gordon. The authors chronicle in great detail the strategic and military missteps that followed the fall of Baghdad in April 2003. The book is particularly important because its publication was the catalyst that launched the "revolt of the generals" a few weeks ago.
Their book appears about three years into this war. As I read, I couldn't help but imagine (given today's political atmospherics) how a book like Messrs. Trainer and Gordon's might have read had it appeared three years after Pearl Harbor.
Such a book would have hit the bookstores at Christmas time in 1944. Messrs. Gordon and Trainer would most certainly have written about the unconstitutional arrogance of an administration that violated international neutrality laws by taking sides with Great Britain against Germany. They would have recognized that Pearl Harbor was the greatest intelligence failure in American history. We would have read the whole horrific story of the humiliating surrender at Corregidor that signaled the shameful loss of the entire American Army in the Philippines.
The condemnatory tenor of the book would continue with depictions of the useless slaughter at "Bloody Buna" in New Guinea, the humiliating loss to the German Army at Kasserine Pass in North Africa, the failure of Dwight Eisenhower to trap the retreating Germans in Sicily, the horrifically wasteful daylight bombing campaign against Germany in 1943. Messrs. Gordon and Trainer would have reserved their worst for the conduct of George C. Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower in their abortive "Crusade in Europe."
We would have read about an Army unprepared to meet the Germans in the hedgerows of Normandy. Operation Market Garden would be depicted as a foolish "bridge too far" that left our bravest
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Amen to that.
That is a GREAT editorial.
Logical and well written.
And, RIGHT ON THE MARK. I have no respect, ZERO for any officer doing this, particularly no flag officer. They should know better.
This article is a homerun.
#54 out of 55 articles and #6 of 7 in the Opinion portion of today's Early Bird.
I completely agree. These "revolting" generals are just grandstanding, imo. If their concern was really for the troops, they have plenty of avenues to make their views known privately to the White House. How many of our brave soldiers and Marines will die because these self-serving generals are encouraging our enemies to believe they can cause us to bring the troops home before the war is won? Kudos to Maj Gen Scales.
A huge "thank you" for posting this.
Amen to that. What I will never understand is the carping, by solid citizens who paid their dues to become general officers, about mistakes and casualties when some of these same men were in command positions while the islamofascists engineered multiple strikes on American interests in their operational areas and they remained silent.
One can only assume that no mistakes were made, the intel was perfect, the policies unflawed and yet the islamofascists still bombed our embassies, chased us out of Mogadishu, killed our sailors on the Cole, hit the WTC once and then yet again.
And the whole while the silence from these same general officers was deafening.
Remember though a Republican was President when this war started. The only people in America allowed to start a war are Democrats.
Great article! This generation has a lot to learn, we have too few teachers, let alone leaders.
He made the jump alright...and broke his frigging leg.
Here's to you, Bernie. Pound sand.
Midway was won LITERALLY in a five-minute span, wherein if the Yorktown had been delayed by even one more hour at Pearl, the result easily could have been two sunk U.S. carriers and NO enemy carriers sunk.
Scales might have mentioned that EVEN in WW II, the Chicago Tribune published an article right after Midway that made clear we had broken the Japanese code, or that a U.S. Congressman revealed publicly that the Japanese depth charges were dropping too low to hurt U.S. subs, thus exposing thousands of submariners to death. It was better then, but it wasn't perfect. The media is the media.
Very well done. Rush is covering a Shelby Steele piece today that is also excellent.
Awesome op. ed.
Victor Davis Hanson has written articles with a similar "spot on" analysis.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1548764/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1585476/posts
What a GREAT Op-Ed!
What a welcome editorial...thanks for posting this.
PING
Very Good article!
Those Generals should be ashamed of what they did
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