Revolt of the Gens (ret) redux

My good friend responds:

My take: BETTER LATE THAN NEVER. Besides, at least one of the generals turned down a 3rd star to retire, which is not chump change.

Sure it's the Commander in Chief's fault, but he's not up for re-election this time (more's the pity). With a little luck maybe the Demos can take control of the House of Representatives and impeach the son of a bitch. Not that the Senate would convict, but the late "great" Tom Delay showed us that you can make your point just by impeaching the president, and all you really need is a majority in the House of Representatives who will vote for Impeachment.

It's way overdue for the Military wing of the Republican Party to speak up. Now if the Fiscal conservatives in the Republican party would just grow some balls, we might hope to scale back tax cuts for the rich in order to trim the deficit just a tiny bit. (Fat chance).

Finally, Hypocracy is the life blood of politics. Note, for example that the same Republicans who were SHOCKED, SHOCKED that Clinton might lie about a dalliance with an Intern, indignantly say that Scooter Libby hasn't been charged with releasing classified information, but only with lying to a Grand Jury. (Note that they also almost elected Ollie North to the Senate a few years ago, after he boasted about lying to Congress about a little privately financed war, financed by trading arms for hostages with the Iranians [aka axis of evil member in good standing]).

to which I must reply, Retaking control of the gov't at this point is a sucker play. Whoever is in power when the tsunami of fecal matter really hits the rotating air circulation device will be permanently saddled with the smell by the suddenly irate electorate. Better to wait for the inevitable denouement and the day the ignamorati finally demand a change. I'd even go so far as to say the elections are crooked and we're not running anyone in '08.

Hypocrisy may be the life blood but it doesn't make it either right or (more to the point) smart in the long run. Just like lying for convenience, eventually the loss in credibility causes more trouble than the temporary convenience was worth. Look at the world's view of the US now: We've already lost the war for the hearts and minds of the mainstream Muslims just by lying about the justification for war -- the islamofascists can blame the CIA for every bad thing that happens and no amount of denials or evidence to the contrary will dissuade the arab street.

Tin


PS: Fun With English Nouns:
* Hypocrite: one who exhibits the characteristic of hypocrisy
* Hypocrisy: the characteristic trait of the hypocrite
* Hypocracy: gov't by hypocrites, presumably


... How's that working for ya?

It's the President, stupid.

Palast has a little different on the Revolt of the Generals (Ret.) plus some add'l insight from Gen. Garner below.

My take: it's easy to snipe from the safety of their pensions -- where were they when it might have done some good (with the exception of Zinni, the only one I know of that spoke out while still in uniform)? Buncha careerist chickenshits as far as I'm concerned. Plus, while it's hypocritical of the Kool-Aid Krowd to say they shouldn't be going public now when it was just fine for the brass to attack Clinton, it's also a bit hypocritical for Clintonites who said the brass were speaking out of turn then to support it now (albeit defending our troops from gays was certainly less of a national security issue than defending our troops from getting blown apart in a mismanaged shooting war).

Duncan



--- Greg Palast
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 15:19:29 -0400 (EDT)
From: Greg Palast

Desert Rats Leave The Sinking Ship
Why Rumsfeld Should Not Resign
The Guardian - Comment
Friday, April 14, 2006
By Greg Palast

Well, here they come: the wannabe Rommels, the
gaggle of generals, safely retired, to lay siege to
Donald Rumsfeld. This week, six of them have called
for the Secretary of Defense's resignation.

Well, according to my watch, they're about four
years too late -- and they still don't get it.

I know that most of my readers will be tickled pink
that the bemedalled boys in crew cuts are finally
ready to kick Rummy in the rump, in public. But to
me, it just shows me that these boys still can't
shoot straight.

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who stood up
in front of the UN and identified two mobile
latrines as biological weapons labs, was it, General
Powell?

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who told us
our next warning from Saddam could be a mushroom
cloud, was it Condoleezza?

It wasn't Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who declared
that Al Qaeda and Saddam were going steady, was it,
Mr. Cheney?

Yes, Rumsfeld is a swaggering bag of mendacious
arrogance, a duplicitous chicken-hawk,
yellow-bellied bully-boy and Tinker-Toy Napoleon --
but he didn't appoint himself Secretary of Defense.

Let me tell you a story about the Secretary of
Defense you didn't read in the New York Times,
related to me by General Jay Garner, the man our
president placed in Baghdad as the US' first
post-invasion viceroy.

Garner arrived in Kuwait City in March 2003 working
under the mistaken notion that when George Bush
called for democracy in Iraq, the President meant
the Iraqis could choose their own government. Misunderstanding the
President's true mission, General Garner called for Iraqis to hold
elections within 90 days and for the U.S. to quickly pull
troops out of the cities to a desert base. "It's
their country," the General told me of the Iraqis.
"And," he added, most ominously, "their oil."

Let's not forget: it's all about the oil. I showed
Garner a 101-page plan for Iraq's economy drafted
secretly by neo-cons at the State Department,
Treasury and the Pentagon, calling for
"privatization" (i.e. the sale) of "all state assets
... especially in the oil and oil-supporting
industries." The General knew of the plans and he
intended to shove it where the Iraqi sun don't
shine. Garner planned what he called a "Big Tent"
meeting of Iraqi tribal leaders to plan elections.
By helping Iraqis establish their own multi-ethnic
government -- and this was back when Sunnis, Shias
and Kurds were on talking terms -- knew he could get
the nation on its feet peacefully before a welcomed "liberation"
turned into a hated "occupation."

But, Garner knew, a freely chosen coalition
government would mean the death-knell for the
neo-con oil-and-assets privatization grab.

On April 21, 2003, three years ago this month, the
very night General Garner arrived in Baghdad, he got
a call from Washington. It was Rumsfeld on the line.
He told Garner, in so many words, "Don't unpack,
Jack, you're fired."

Rummy replaced Garner, a man with years of
on-the-ground experience in Iraq, with green-boots
Paul Bremer, the Managing Director of Kissinger
Associates. Bremer cancelled the Big Tent meeting of
Iraqis and postponed elections for a year; then he
issued 100 orders, like some tin-pot pasha, selling
off Iraq's economy to U.S. and foreign operators,
just as Rumsfeld's neo-con clique had desired.

Reading this, it sounds like I should applaud the
six generals' call for Rumfeld's ouster. Forget it.

For a bunch of military hotshots, they sure can't
shoot straight. They're wasting all their bullets on
the decoy. They've gunned down the puppet instead of
the puppeteers.

There's no way that Rumsfeld could have yanked
General Garner from Baghdad without the word from
The Bunker. Nothing moves or breathes or spits in
the Bush Administration without Darth Cheney's growl
of approval. And ultimately, it's the
Commander-in-Chief who's chiefly in command.

Even the generals' complaint -- that Rumsfeld didn't
give them enough troops -- was ultimately a decision
of the cowboy from Crawford. (And by the way, the
problem was not that we lacked troops -- the problem
was that we lacked moral authority to occupy this
nation. A million troops would not be enough -- the insurgents would
just have more targets.)

President Bush is one lucky fella. I can imagine him
today on the intercom with Cheney: "Well, pardner,
looks like the game's up." And Cheney replies, "Hey,
just hang the Rumsfeld dummy out the window until
he's taken all their ammo."

When Bush and Cheney read about the call for
Rumsfeld's resignation today, I can just hear George
saying to Dick, "Mission Accomplished."

Generals, let me give you a bit of advice about
choosing a target: It's the President, stupid.

Core Beliefs of the Wadical White Wing

Core Beliefs of the Wadical White Wing

1) Being a drug addict is a moral failure and a crime, unless you're a rich conservative. Then it's an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.

2) The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iran/Iraq.

3) Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.

4) Standing Tall for America, means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.

5) Multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.

6) The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.

7) A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our long-time allies, then demand their cooperation and money.

8) HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.

9) Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.

10) Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a 'we can't find Bin Laden' diversion.

11) A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.

12) The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.

13) What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.

14) Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

Court Papers: Bush, Cheney OK'ed Leaks

Court Papers: Bush, Cheney OK'ed Leaks: "Court Papers: Bush, Cheney OK'ed Leaks
SEE ALL POSTS
EMAIL THIS POST
PERMALINK
COMMENTS (79)

President Bush told Vice President Cheney to tell the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, to disclose highly classified information regarding Iraq intelligence in order to try and discredit legitimate criticism of the administration.

What's this? The latest line from proponents of impeachment?

No, it is what the bible of Washington insiders, the National Journal, is reporting that Libby has testified was the scenario that played out before he began contacting reporters in an effort to undermine the reputation of former Ambassador Joe Wilson.

According to the Journal report published today: 'I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby testified to a federal grand jury that he had received 'approval from the President through the Vice President' to divulge portions of a National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to the court papers. Libby was said to have testified that such presidential authorization to disclose classified information was 'unique in his recollection,' the court papers further said.'


| The Journal report, which is based on both court papers and interviews with senior government officials familiar with the investigation of Libby's actions by "