Admiral Stockdale on War - very timely

[Bonhomme Richard]

Admiral Stockdale witnessed the whole Gulf of Tonkin incident and new, from the beginning, what a sham it was.

“ And in the case of starting wars it is very, very important that you have moral leverage behind you.

A leader who starts a war must face the fact that there will later be many times when he wishes he could get out of that war. Because as the caskets move by and grief emerges there is going to be a great temptation, unless he is just an Adolph Hitler, to get out of that. And “to get out of that” that way is a worse mistake usually than getting into it, because it lets everybody down, just like McNamara and Johnson bailed out and left a whole generation of Americans over there to pick up after them.

I’m a warrior and you can see I’m a hawk, but I’m going to tell you that when you get into a war you’ve got to be very sure that you are on honest, solid rock foundations or it’s going to eat you alive.”

Admiral James Stockdale
Excerpt from Newsweek, The Bad War: an Oral History of the Vietnam War, Kim Willenson

[ewagner]

1. Thanks for posting that

I hate to admit it but I was one of those who ridiculed Admiral Stockdale in the Vice Presidential Debates when he was Ross Perot's running mate. I didn't know his history.

Now I know that Stockdale was a true warrior and possibly one of the bravest men our country has seen. His leadership of the POWs in the infamous Hanoi Hilton is the stuff that legends are made of and he took torture and abuse that few of us can imagine.

I didn't know about the words you posted above but they only deepen my respect for the man.

Maybe he was a hawk but he was the "old style" hawk. A man who believed in fighting for his country with every fiber of his being but also believed that leaders should embark on the path to war only on the highest of moral causes.

Again thanks.

[Captain Hilts]

2. Thanks Bonnie Dick! (nt)

[SunDrop23]

3. Thanks

[Bonhomme Richard]

4. I just read that passage the other day and....

couldn't help but post it.
I loved the "unless he is just an Adolph Hitler" remark.
Shrub may not be Adolph Hitler but his gang of thugs are just as dangerous to this nation as Hitler was to Germany.

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. For the afternoon crowd. n/t