Generals trying to stop new fiasco BY ANDREW GREELEY

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Generals trying to stop new fiasco

http://chicagosuntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel28.html

April 28, 2006

BY ANDREW GREELEY


May military officers for reason of conscience criticize the political leadership of the armed forces, even after they've retired, on the grounds that the behavior of the leadership is immoral? As Marine Gen. Gregory Newbold said, the "decision to invade Iraq was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who never had to execute these missions or bury the results." This judgment does not differ from that of George Packer, an early supporter of the war in his extraordinary book, The Assassin's Gate. Two men with different backgrounds and perspectives come to exactly the same judgment and use the same word, "casual."



One may be prepared to agree that the protesting generals should have resigned from the services if they thought that the war was being run by civilian cowboys. But, should they not, like Colin Powell, have maintained a stoic silence about their discontent? One hears two arguments in favor of this position: regard for the morale of the troops and respect for the American tradition of civilian control of the military.

It seems to me that if an officer is convinced his civilian leadership is reckless with his soldiers' lives, then he must resign and speak out. Otherwise he is cooperating in evil and is as much a war criminal as the "casual, swaggering civilian leadership."



The issue becomes not whether it is right to criticize the leadership but whether the criticism is valid. If it is, then there should be a resignation, but of the president instead of the secretary of defense. Another book on the war -- Cobra II by military historians Michael Gordon and Bernard Trainor -- addresses the same issue. Their craft requires a careful and detailed description of the battles, major and minor, of a campaign that future generations of cadets will study in the service academies. Such men have no particular ideological bias. They are diagnosticians whose duty it is to describe what worked and what didn't work.

[ribrepin]

1. Thank you for posting this

Greeley is a smart man--I don't think people are paying enough attention to what neo-liars are up to in regards to Iran. There is no doubt in my mind that we are going to hit Iran.