December 04, 2005

Comments

Commenter George Hoffman, in a thread a couple posts back:

Arm-chair bloggers venting spleen on MoDo will not resolve the dilemma of sending our sons and daughters to Iraq. When General Eric Shensiki was retired early by Rummy for testifying before a Congressional committee in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq that a minimium of two-hundred thousand to three-hundred thousand troops would be needed to accomplish the pacification, the Bush Administration embarked on the yellow-brick road of delusional denial. And after three years and more than two thousand WIA's they have finally realized that they aren't in Kansas anymore. We have sqaundered the precious blood and treasure of our nation so that political hacks and PR operatives can plant stories in the Iraqi press for millions of dollars charged to the American tax-payers. This is democracy in action? If you believe that, I have a bridge in Brooklyn that I want to sell to you.

We have accomplished the worst mistake in war, going in with too few troops from a Secretary of Defense that treats the military like an arbitrager dismantling a company for profit. He has gone from calling the insurgents just a bunch of dead-enders to finally admitting to the press and the public that the insurgency may last anyway from one to ten years. I wonder how VP Cheney, who has stated the impartive of torture of suspected terrorists, can look at Senator McCain when the Prince of Darkness had not one but five deferments from the draft during his youth. I met a lot of wounded grunts in Vietnam with wives and children who would have liked just one deferment, let alone five.

I was for the invasion of Afghanistan, which was sanctioned by rooting out the terrorists and hijackers of the 9/11 attacks. But I was dead against this quagmire in the sand that we now find oursleves in Iraq, because I saw as a Vietnam Veteran what Yoggi Berra called deja vu all over again. I never bought into the bullshit arguments of Secretary of State Colin Powell's defense before the UN Security Council on the invasion. And I thought as I watched him hold up black-and-white photographs of the alleged Iraqi mobile germ laboratories about Adlai Stevenson's impassioned moral defense before that same body during the Cuban Misslle Crisis and how far we have sunk into the bog of merde.

Now I hope against hope that the Bush administration can pull off his stated goal of bringing some modicum of democracy to the Iraqis. Then I read about the torture chambers apparently run by members of Sadr Shiite militia in the Ministry of Interior against the Sunni Iraiqis. That just re-enforces to Sunni Iraqis that the so-called democratic government of Iraq will be business as usual without Saddam, who is on trial for among many crimes running torture chambers. That's the wonderful thing about this war: just when one thinks that it could not possibly get any worse, it does. Then I read that the Kurds have signed a deal with oil companies to explore for more oil reserves around Kirkuk and Mosul, and their supposedly fellow countrymen are angry, because they think that the profits from this national treasure will somehow not be shared with the entire country. Now if I had an oil well in my backyard, of course, I would share the profits with my neighbors on the street. Yeah, right. And if a pig had wings, it could therotically fly if you willingly suspend all the laws of aerodynamics and gravity.

Bloggers, wake up and smell the cordite from the latest IED explosion! All you have to lose is your naivete about human nature and how this misadventure is playing out to its sad denounement.

I don't agree with all of what Mr. Hoffman writes here, but he should rest assured I consider Donald Rumsfeld to be perhaps the most derelict man to serve in a key Cabinet position in my lifetime. I'll have more on why tomorrow.

You know, I'm starting to think that Greg doesn't care for Donald Rumsfeld much. That's definitely the feeling I'm getting. You?

Posted by: newsisyphus at December 4, 2005 09:10 AM | Permalink to this comment

Indeed. Things were much better under William Cohen, notwithstanding the facts.

Posted by: Tim at December 4, 2005 11:43 AM | Permalink to this comment

The idea that venting spleen over Bimbopundit at The New York Times has little value is a point, whatever one's views on Iraq.

Posted by: JEB at December 4, 2005 06:28 PM | Permalink to this comment

I don't know why everybody keeps saying Shinseki was fired. I guess this and the Plame affair fit nicely into the narrative they have chosen to believe about the administration being petty and vindictive.

Saying it over and over again doesn't make it so.

Posted by: Chuck Betz at December 4, 2005 07:28 PM | Permalink to this comment

Regarding the claim that Shinseki was fired: from what I recall, what happened was that Rumsfeld announced his replacement 6 months before his term ended, instead of the normal 1 month, thereby rendering him a lame duck.

The larger point is that Rumsfeld ignored the fact that all the military's occupation experts said that we needed 200,000+ troups for at least a few months, in order to establish order and stop an insurgency from getting started.

Posted by: Les Brunswick at December 5, 2005 12:27 AM | Permalink to this comment

Regarding the claim that Shinseki was fired: from what I recall, what happened was that Rumsfeld announced his replacement 6 months before his term ended, instead of the normal 1 month, thereby rendering him a lame duck.

The larger point is that Rumsfeld ignored the fact that all the military's occupation experts said that we needed 200,000+ troups for at least a few months, in order to establish order and stop an insurgency from getting started.

Posted by: Les Brunswick at December 5, 2005 12:29 AM | Permalink to this comment

Chuck, the commenter quoted by Greg doesn't actually say Shinseki was fired. He said he was retired early. Which is closer to Les's explanation of events - which is how I understand it to be.

Posted by: Eric Martin at December 5, 2005 03:44 PM | Permalink to this comment

"You know, I'm starting to think that Greg doesn't care for Donald Rumsfeld much. That's definitely the feeling I'm getting. You?"

No. Im shocked, shocked I tell you, to find that you have that impression.

Posted by: liberalhawk at December 5, 2005 06:19 PM | Permalink to this comment