Salon: "I'm the decider"

[ProSense]

"I'm the decider"

Clinging to Rumsfeld as generals lead an unprecedented revolt, Bush reveals his weakness and his disdain for the lessons of history.

By Sidney Blumenthal

Apr. 19, 2006 | The analogy between Iraq and Vietnam has proved to be most compelling to the generals who planned and conducted the invasion of Iraq. They kept to themselves their profound disquiet about the rapid rejection of the original plan for invasion that had taken 10 years to develop, the inadequate downsized force, the absence of preparation for the occupation, and the disastrous decision to disband the Iraqi military.

Almost all these generals voted for George W. Bush in 2000 as a statement of conservatism; they never expected radicalism. Serving their civilian neoconservative superiors, they endured contempt. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's closest aide, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone, joked that the problems of the Army "could be solved by lining up fifty of its generals in the Pentagon and gunning them down," report Michael R. Gordon and Gen. Bernard E. Trainor in their new book on the Iraq invasion, "Cobra II." It was the sort of joke that Uday Hussein could have made. On Sept. 10, 2001, Rumsfeld held a Pentagon town meeting at which he declared the "bureaucracy" -- the career military professionals -- to be "a serious threat to the security of the United States."

The generals have been wary of engaging in public debate for fear of being misconstrued as political. But they are haunted by Vietnam and deeply influenced by H.R. McMaster's 1997 book, "Dereliction of Duty," which argues that the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Vietnam era failed in their constitutional responsibility to object strenuously to misguided strategies. (McMasters is currently a general serving in Iraq.) As the generals have stepped forward, one by one, to demand the resignation of Secretary Rumsfeld they have spoken in the language of McMaster's book.

On March 19, retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi army, said Rumsfeld is "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq."

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http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2006/04/19/rumsfeld_bush/

[EVDebs]

1. I always thought the people held the final decision. Wrong again. eom

[aden_nak]

2. He's the executor. Congress is the decider.

At least, that's how that silly old Consitution seems to lay it out.

[otohara]

3. Good Article

i like sydney b.