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Younger officers voice opinions on Iraq |
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"The revolt by retired generals who publicly criticized Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has opened an extraordinary debate among younger officers, in military academies, in the armed services' staff colleges and even in command posts and mess halls in Iraq" so opens a report by the New York Times of April 23, 2006.
The NYT has withheld the identities of these officers in order to protect their careers. Opinions vary, both regarding Rumsfeld and the senior officers who led the nation to war in Iraq. Here is what some of these officers are saying:
--An Army major intelligence specialist:
"The history I will take away from this is that the current crop of generals failed to stand up and say, 'We cannot do this mission.' They confused the cultural can-do attitude with their responsibilities as leaders to delay the start of the war until we had an adequate force. I think the backlash against the general officers will be seen in the resignation of officers" who might otherwise have stayed in uniform for more years.
--An army major in the Special Forces, with two combat tours in Iraq:
"This is about the moral bankruptcy of general officers who lived through the Vietnam era yet refused to advise our civilian leadership properly... [The Army] went gently into that good night of Iraq without saying a word...For that reason, most of us know that we have to share the burden of responsibility for this tragedy."
Other officers asserted the current civilian leaders select "officers who are like-minded" and thus get "the military advice they want based on whom they appoint."
They recall "the denunciations of Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff, who was shunted aside after telling Congress that it would take several hundred thousand troops to secure and stabilize Iraq after the Saddam Hussein was toppled."
"At the end of the day, it wasn't Rumsfeld who sent us to war, it was the president. Officers know better than anyone else that the buck stops at the top. I think we are too deep into this for Rumsfeld's resignation to mean much."
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http://zfacts.com/p/339.html | 01/18/12 07:26 GMT
Modified: Sat, 22 Apr 2006 19:40:48 GMT
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