Posted on 11/19/2012 6:06:56 AM PST by Zakeet
Fastidiousness is never a good sign in a general officer. Though strutting military peacocks go back to Alexander’s time, our first was MacArthur, who seemed at times to care more about how much gold braid decorated the brim of his cap than he did about how many bodies he left on beachheads across the Pacific. Next came Westmoreland, with his starched fatigues in Vietnam. In our time, Gen. David H. Petraeus has set the bar high. Never has so much beribboned finery decorated a general’s uniform since Al Haig passed through the sally ports of West Point on his way to the White House.
“What’s wrong with a general looking good?” you may wonder. I would propose that every moment a general spends on his uniform jacket is a moment he’s not doing his job, which is supposed to be leading soldiers in combat and winning wars — something we, and our generals, stopped doing about the time that MacArthur gold-braided his way around the stalemated Korean War.
And now comes “Dave” Petraeus, and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. No matter how good he looked in his biographer-mistress’s book, it doesn’t make up for the fact that we failed to conquer the countries we invaded, and ended up occupying undefeated nations.
The genius of General Petraeus was to recognize early on that the war he had been sent to fight in Iraq wasn’t a real war at all. This is what the public and the news media — lamenting the fall of the brilliant hero undone by a tawdry affair — have failed to see. He wasn’t the military magician portrayed in the press; he was a self-constructed hologram, emitting an aura of preening heroism for the ever eager cameras.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Kerry’s situation is being used as a poke in the eye....typically an Odungo “see what I can do” maneuver.
So true. Hit piece. Why?
I have never been a big fan of Petraeus after his campaign to remove a Navy guy from heading CENTCOM. However, it appears to me he has done or is about to do something courageous that threatens Obama. How else to explain the character assassination? Let’s hope they just stick to character.
The author of this piece is neither a patriot nor a man with a sense of decency: There are thousands who have given their lives and multiple thousands more who have sustained injuries, and years of warriors who have give time in deployment, absence from family, endurance of scenes humans shouldn't have to witness.
Don't tell me it's a phony war. The blood of the dead cries from the ground to contradict your foolishness.
I would strip you of your citizenship and set you adrift to land where someone has need of of an ignorant man.
Is this the opening salv0 to totally discredit Petraeus over his Benghazi testimony the other day?
Another example of an outright LIE by the NYT as MacArthur actually lost fewer men in the entire Pacific war than Eisenhower did in his invasion on D-Day! Check it out!Doug may have been flamboyant but he was a leader dedicated to protecting his soldiers and, like Patton, a military genius.
I served with a Lucian Truscott, must have been Truscott III or maybe II
Having a brilliant scion is a hard act to maintain through multiple generations as the gene pool gets diluted
That’s a good title for a newspaper that practices phony journalism.
American commies will use any and every opportunity to smear our military.
This story isn’t even over yet; it may be a matter of someone coming forward and being able to break through the blackmail to bring the truth to light, even if it could cost them their future.
MacArthur is easily the most overrated general in US history. The problem is hating/liking him became politicized, but an objective look at his record reveals a mix of horrific incompetence (initial defense of the Phillipines, getting surprised by the Chinese in Korea) and accomplishments that aren’t nearly as great as they appear once you look at them more closely (New Guinea campaign, Inchon).
A bit odd the author attacks Petraeus for being “fastidious” but then holds up Patton as an ideal (who practiced his facial expressions in a mirror).
I just read his bio. He is worse than what I suggested was someone who never wore the uniform. He wore it and dishonored it. An obviuosly disgruntled leftist who has a grudge against the military.
>> we failed to conquer the countries we invaded
That was a political problem the NY Times had a large part in creating, not something our military failed at.
the article is not half bad, and I agree with him to a certain extent, until he waffles...
How does a military genius get his entire air force destroyed on the ground in the Phillipines 10 hours after Pearl Harbor?
And how does a military genius deliberately ignore multiple reports of Chinese troops in large numbers in Korea?
Thank you, maybe if the military was actually allowed to do that job....
One of the reasons Hitler was able to dominate the German military was due to the military leaserhip’s reluctance to do the right thing and insist upon lawful conduct and compliance with the law of nations. One of the most courageeous acts is to standalone and risk personal disgrace for refusing to obey illegal orders. This is especially true when you may agree with the purpsoes of the military operations, but you must refuse illegal orders or sacrifice your personal and legal integrity.
Using the threat of assignment to a combat assignment as a means of intimidation and/or punishment is grossly illegal conduct under military law, and the person subjected to such an illegal order does have an extreme conflict between complying with the illegal order or permitting the illegal conduct to go unchallenged and unpunished.
How many people here would have the wisdom and the courage to stand in opposition to such an illegal act?
Mighty harsh words coming from a wimp who probably would cower from the power of a squirt gun.
Indeed, those generals had their flaws, but they had the advantage of actually having talent.
Not so for the writer of that piece.
So, esteemed writer, please go back to what you do best...wimpering, complaining, and wishing that you actually had something useful in life to do.
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