Founder of 'Delta Force' tears the Monkey a new one...

[edbermac]

Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.) Today, he's doing nothing nearly as dangerous: He serves as an executive producer and technical adviser for "The Unit," CBS' new hit drama based on his book, developed by playwright David Mamet. Even up against "American Idol," "The Unit" shows muscle, drawing 18 million viewers in its first two airings. Since he has devoted his life to protecting his country in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots, you might assume Haney is sympathetic to the Bush administration's current plight in Iraq (the laudatory cover blurb on his book comes from none other than Fox's News' Bill O'Reilly). But he's also someone with close ties to the Pentagon, so he's privy to information denied the rest of us.

We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward. We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Q: What is the cost to our country?

A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on. Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.

The harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more than 2,000 American kids that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed ñ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public's attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.

http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3641046

[fooj]

1. Truth is our most powerful weapon.

Peace.

[donco6]

2. Yowza! He lays it out there. Fantastic.

"Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela."

I don't know whether to cheer or run for the hills.

[NCarolinawoman]

3. This guy needs to get on all the talk shows:

Meet The Press, Hardball, Oprah, 60 Minutes, etc. as soon as possible.

Take that Hannity and Limpballs! Oh, I forgot.
They will accuse this guy of hating America and being a wimp.

[Wetzelbill]

21. O'Reilly had him on a few weeks ago

Bill acted like he wanted to start telling Haney what's what. He seemed irritated that Haney didn't say we should go out and torture with impunity. It was weird. Only thing is O'Reilly was a little intimidated by him, so he didn't get all red-faced and goofy like he normally would. Haney was rational, smart and gave out some good info.

[renate]

25. he was on the Daily Show a few weeks ago, too

An extremely impressive guy. I hope his show is a huge success.

[leeroysphitz]

33. They will accuse this guy of hating America and being a wimp

Right. Having never served Hannity and Limbaugh couldn't even begin to understand that it's impossible for anyone, man or woman, to be a wimp and still achieve the rank of Command Sergeant Major in the U.S. Army. You might as well accuse the sun of not rising...

[NewJeffCT]

50. Not only that...

It was his fault the hostage rescue failed... I can see the Swift Boating now. "I was on the chopper with Haney and everybody hated the guy."

[wiggs]

4. Amazing. Clear. Blunt. Honest. Obvious. Why can't elected

officials do this?

Recommended, and I hope he gets some press.

[C_U_L8R]

5. Weepy Fweepies

Poor freeps... who will the little keyboard warriors masturbate about now.

[ohtransplant]

6. Where are the headlines for this interview?

This belongs on the front pages.


Hell, man coulter dodging a pie made more news in our vast barren wasteland of media...

[LuckyLib]

7. Tell it like it is. Sometimes a military voice is the only voice

Repugs can hear. Perhaps he can have some influence somewhere. Lord knows millions of angry average Americans doesn't make a difference, especially with no one in Congress to represent them.


Edited for grammar.

[BrightKnight]

8. "...so fear is what they're going to have from now on" -n/t

[tabasco]

9. Thank you Sergeant Major Haney !

There is no love for the chimp in the Army ranks. The Army knew they would bear the brunt of chimp's stupid Iraq war and they were right. There has been more opposition to the corporate cabal from the Army than anywhere else.

:patriot:

[calmblueocean]

10. One thing: Why is this in the Entertainment Section?!

Yes, I got it, they're interviewing him because a new show is coming out that is based on his book, and that he is a technical adviser to.

But what a sad day it is when the truth can only make its presence known on the Entertainment pages.

[fishwax]

15. good question

i hope it gets some bigger play ...

[UpInArms]

11. I guess he only reads that "libral media" - why hasn't he checked out

any of the lefty sites?

He could find lots of lamenting and caring and not voting for the criminals just here at DU.

But no, he probably has been hanging out at FR.

Glad he's speaking out, but it reminds me of Bill Maher saying that only Rush limpballs stood up for him.

Makes me gag on the "good" parts.

[fishwax]

14. i don't get what's to criticize here

how do you know he hasn't checked out any of the lefty sites? His words (both those quoted in the OP and some of his other comments in the article) would be quite at home here on DU. But you assume he's a freeper? That just doesn't compute.

[UpInArms]

16. from the OP:

1) the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration

nothing about the election being stolen :eyes:

2) Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed ñ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact.

I have seen it lamented many many many times (here at DU)

I am not assuming he's a freeper - merely stating that he obviously hasn't looked anywhere other than right-wing sites and listened the muddia.

Sorry if I came off grumpy - I have the flu.

[fishwax]

17. I don't think it necessarily means he hasn't looked at places like this

though. I've seen lots of people here on DU say things similar to "nobody seems to care about the dead Iraqis." They're referring to the attitude of the public at large, not saying absolutely/literally nobody. That's how I took his comment. And he could have mentioned election fraud, I suppose, but I think he's a much stronger voice on his own turf :) He's a guy with pretty much unimpeachable security cred who is trumpeting DU talking points, and I applaud that. And I don't think the overview of the general american attitude means he doesn't know/care about sites like this.

The flu sucks, though--I hope you feel better soon UpInArms :hi:

[UpInArms]

38. thanks for your take on this fishwax

sometimes I can get pretty narrow and defensive :blush:

and thank for the encouragement - the flu really does suck :hi:

[understandinglife]

12. Seems "Sgt Majors" understand the scope of evil that is Bush's ...

... neoconster empire:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=768680&mesg_id=768680


Be The Bu$h Opposition - 24/7

[DemoTex]

13. The NCOs know.

Always have. Always will. However, few ever speak out like this. Thank you Command Sergeant Major Haney. Thank you sir (and I know that you work for a living .. but is it still SIR).

[jaysunb]

18. Powerful indictment......

Thanks for posting this. :toast:

[Wetzelbill]

19. Eric Haney is an interesting guy

Very smart. My brother read his book and says it is fantastic. My brother happens to be further Left then I am. He says Haney doesn't fit a typical macho stereotype, brainwashed and blindly patriotic. He's smart, well-informed, loves our country and cares for what is right. So he knows the score. Much like Stan Goff this is a former Special Forces guy who has lots of important things to say. :)

[underpants]

48. No he doesn't appear to at all (PICS)

This is the same guy right?

I was surprised.

[MrScorpio]

20. Bravo, SGT MAJ Haney

Telling it like it is!

[ClayZ]

22. K and R

:kick:

[calimary]

24. Yes! From me, too.

He closes by saying the American people will come around, adding "they always do."

I hope to GOD they do. Two or three generations it's gonna take for us to recover from this?

Shit.

Just. Shit.

Keep visualizing...

[TacticalPeek]

23. Oorah!

He's from a profession that requires a proficient perception of reality and includes heavy penalties on the learning curve.

:patriot:

[ThoughtCriminal]

26. Have the Right Wingers started the "Swiftboating " yet?

The chickenhawks will fire up the smears.

[Mythsaje]

27. I was thinking "The Unit"

would be more war-mongering bullshit, but it's pretty thoughtful, and concentrates as much on the personal lives of the soldiers and their wives (who aren't supposed to know what they do, but do anyway), as the "adventurers" of their husbands.

It's not a gung-ho, kill-em-all p.o.s. show like 24, at least. Last week the Sgt. in charge of the Unit had to go into some SE Asian country to rescue some Senator's daughter or niece because she was being a very unwelcome missionary. When the girl and one of her lackeys escaped from the rescue, he had to go retrieve them, and boy, was he pissed. He kinda threw out a "what part of they don't want you here don't you understand?" vibe.

It doesn't surprise me that the guy who wrote the book it's based on doesn't like the Bushites. A real soldier who's fought real terrorists, and knows how close we cut it sometimes isn't going to like a bunch of adventurers by proxy throwing his fellow soldiers into the grinder for their own egos. He's not going to like it at all.

[Historic NY]

28. Thanks SGT Maj. for calling it a Charles Frank from the very ....

start. It justifies what many of the command staff were saying until * got rid of them.

[w4rma]

29. That guy can speak and expain. Wow. He should run for office. (nt)

[Trevelyan]

30. K&R Good for the lying SOBs on AOL Messageboards with their

"liberal wimps" killing our troops by criticising Dear Leader.

[Bushies gotta go]

31. That's powerful. Should be a must read....

...for every lame dick redneck Nascar Bush supporting fool. IF they could read.

[RedEarth]

32. Interesting....thanks for posting

[WiseButAngrySara]

34. K & R! This is excellent. Some of his remarks I hope come true, like:

"Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart."

and,

"Our military is completely consumed, so ..... that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela."

Other comments are simply chilling and ominous, because I fear that they are true:

"I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies."

and,

"But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing."

[eyepaddle]

35. Wow, that really lays it out, doesn't it?

I might have to watch his show just to lend support.

[QuettaKid]

36. K&R .nt.

.

[centristo]

37. deny, deny, deny

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1603714/posts

[Donovan61]

39. You really didn't expect the Kool-Aid drinkers

to listen to reason, did you? They just like to get to the truthiness of the issues. Since they have no facts to support their positions, they always engage in personal attacks. Fortunately for us, the public at large is finally getting wise to their tactics.

[centristo]

43. you could set your clock to their smears

that is, when a presumably RW icon says something anti-Bush, it is ALWAYS inevitable for them to pounce on the person. I can't think of any time someone on the Right criticized Bush or Iraq and wasn't instantly smeared.

[Maat]

45. Thanks for the report, Centristo.

Hope you didn't catch any bad diseases going over there. YOU were brave.

[Sequoia]

40. "The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it."

Touche'

[Joey Liberal]

41. An Army NCO with Balls!

We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war ommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward. We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Q: What is the cost to our country?

A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public's attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.

http://www.dailynews.com/entertainment/ci_3641046

[leesfirstalso]

42. "TODAY I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY!"

“TODAY I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY”



“TODAY I WEEP FOR MY COUNTRY…AROUND THE GLOBE OUR FRIENDS MISTRUST US, OUR WORD IS DISPUTED, OUR INTENTIONS ARE QUESTIONED!” Senator Robert Byrd



Have we seen enough coffins come home? Has our money been used well in Iraq? Was invading a country without justification worth the loss of lives, money and our world reputation? How many enemies have we made in a hopeless occupation that has no end in sight? Has a preemptive strike without cause caused an area that was NOT a terrorist hangout to become one? Has an arrogant President and his regime caused more of a threat to the world with the rise of terrorism every where? Can we deny it is a civil war any longer? Have we really gone forward, or are we standing still, stuck in the mire of an illegitimate war? If these questions are answered honestly, we must know this war will go down in history as one of the U.S.’s biggest blunders!



The media per instructions from their “pioneer” owners denied the Downing Street Memo, but like a bad nightmare for the Bush regime it comes up again! Another substantiated secret memo comes out once again proving the American people were bold-faced LIED to, and that Bush wanted that war! Yes, Helen Thomas, you were right in asking that question! Too bad you received yet another lie for an answer. It was the Bush regime’s war! They were ready to do whatever necessary to provoke it, if necessary by painting planes, and disregarding world opinion and even the WMD inspections revealing no results! Paul O’Neill, in his book “The Price of Loyalty” revealed shortly after the Bush inauguration plans were being formulated. Richard Clarke was told to find reasons to make an Iraq invasion acceptable.


Benchmarks like the election fall by the wayside as security in Iraq remains negligible, and there isn’t even an accurate count of Iraqi deaths.


Are the oppressed now rising up against the oppressor?? It’s bound to happen. We know the pressure, the strings pulled, the fake propaganda news reports of “progress” planted and it is fooling no one! The World Bully, who wants Democracy, but wants it only their way so they can show gains, is being told to “bug out!”


http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/28/international/middleeast/28cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1143608400&en=3952503f28f3910a&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Shiites Say U.S. Is Pressuring Iraqi Leader to Step Aside


Excerpts:

“Senior Shiite politicians said today that the American ambassador has told Shiite leaders to inform the Iraqi prime minister that the Bush administration does not want him to remain the leader of Iraq in the next government.”

“Ambassador Khalilzad said that President Bush "doesn't want, doesn't support, doesn't accept" Mr. Jaafari to be the next prime minister, according to Mr. Taki, an aide to Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Shiite bloc. It was the first "clear and direct message" from the Americans on the issue of the nominee for prime minister”

"How can they do this?" said Haider al-Ubady, the spokesman. "An ambassador telling a sovereign country what to do is unacceptable."

How soon will we be asked to leave? With Shock and Awe we came, will it end up being the harder we came, the harder we’ll fall in the end? If all we accomplished is death, destruction, an unstable Middle East, and money down the drain, then get out the handkerchiefs, for we will really weep for it all!

[EVDebs]

44. Powell Doctrine and War Powers Act of 1973 require truth and public

support for authorized use of military forces.

""Essentially, the (Powell) Doctrine expresses that military action should be used only as a last resort and only if there is a clear risk to national security by the intended target; the force, when used, should be overwhelming and disproportionate to the force used by the enemy; there must be strong support for the campaign by the general public; and there must be a clear exit strategy from the conflict in which the military is engaged.""

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/teachers/lessonplans/iraq/powelldoctrine_short.html

""It is the purpose of this joint resolution to fulfill the intent of the framers of the Constitution of the United States and insure that the collective judgement of both the Congress and the President will apply to the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities, or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicate by the circumstances, and to the continued use of such forces in hostilities or in such situations.""
War Powers Act of 1973
www.cs.indiana.edu/statecraft/warpow.html

Thus truthful circumstances and situations are REQUIRED. Lies, fabrications, and phantom WMDs, obviously, do not meet the prescriptions of the WPA, which by the way are incorporated into each of the Authorizations for Use of Military Force (AUMFs) that were passed by Congress in 2001 and 2002. Congress cannot also delegate its own war making powers to presidential 'determinations' either.

This will all need to be revisited by Constitutional scholars or the fate of the republic is at stake.

[Uncle Joe]

46. Kicked and recommended,

This influences me to watch "The Unit".
Kicked and recommended

:kick:

[chrisfloyd]

47. It's guys like him who's voices are critical.

It's guys like him who's voices are critical.

See this trailer

US Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/focced/preview/index.php?movieID=trailer2.swf

US Foreign Policy in the Middle East. Featuring the voices of and interviews with more than a dozen prominent social activists including USMC Major Scott Ritter , US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday and hosted by former US Special Forces Master Sergeant Stan Goff.

From this page.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/focced/

[oscarguy]

49. Appreciate hearing from well experienced Veterans as to what is ...

going on in the war in Iraq and the WAR AGAINST TERRORISTS. Hearing from those who have been THERE and done IT, means a lot to me. His assessment of the current situation is notable, for sure. I did a good bit of fighting during the Viet Nam War, but was never more than a lance corporal during that time. I spent most of my time as a Pvt. E-1 over there. That is the lowest rank there is. I was a smart ass and then some, as I always backed it up by kicking the crap out of misc. NCO`s. Whatever, that is the way some of us guys were. I was hardly unique in that regard.I was never in the position of having to give orders that got comrades killed or injured. For that I truly am gratefully and do not regret that. ...Oscar

[jmowreader]

51. A minor sticking point...

The founder of US Army Task Force Delta was Colonel Charles "Chargin' Charlie" Beckwith.

Sergeant Major Eric Haney was a "founding member," but he wasn't the founder. No enlisted man ever is.

This doesn't change the fact that he's right about this war, right about Bush and right about many other things.