Has anyone else seen Myers on TV giving is political opinion that other officers shouldn't give their opinion? He fits right in with Bushco.
Posted by herbal tee at April 15, 2006 04:48 PMZinni spoke very wise words. I wasn't much of a fan of Shelton until I read this Zinni comment.
One of the barely remarked-upon things that Rumsfeld has done is personally interview all new general officers being promoted, and his focus is on their congruence with the party line in DoD. Several articles were written on this subject in national media a few years ago.
The effect of Rumsfeld's test is to create a class of senior generals/admirals that display ideological consistency as well potential for leadership. It leads to a Myers-kind of guy - the uniformed deputy of the Secy of Def. Who knows how many others there are now in this mold.
Yet another reason Rumsfeld should go. It is reminisent of Hitler's treatment of German general officers. He wanted yes men, and he got yes men.
Posted by JimPortlandOR at April 15, 2006 05:17 PMGood observation Jim. American military history is full of political generals being in charge at the beginning of wars. Often, your Grants and Eisenhowers come along after the political hacks have fowled things up. In the past the good leaders have been able to rise. If Rumsfeld has his way, this new layer of political consideration may well create long term harm.
Posted by herbal tee at April 15, 2006 05:35 PMMyer's daughter got some sort of promotion, for which she wasn't really qualified, within the Buscho cult headquarters if I am not mistaken. Jim makes an excellent observation. They have purged the military of true military leaders that give their opinion based on their military expertise, and filled it by promoting ideological nutcases like General Boykin who feels that God placed Junior in Command and that his God is bigger than their God.
Posted by emal at April 16, 2006 05:30 AMGreat observations.
How much more on board with the Bushco program could current generalissimo Pete Pace (what a name) be? Hey, any comment from any member of "Congress" on these generals calls for von Rumsfeld's resignation? Pretty quiet over there, I guess they're on holiday.
I think you can forget about the current active duty officer corps being much of a restraint on Nero Jr and von Rumsfeld at this point. They've been running the show, manipulating the promotions, torpedoing the careers of the independent thinkers for over 5 years now.
That's a long time, and those straight-talking types are now either out shilling for defense contractors, or REALLY keeping their heads down until some magic date for retirement. Apparently the active duty higer ups are quite willing to have the operation transformed into a yes man affair.
It's very easy to destroy national institutions once the chief executive sets his mind to do so. So much of our country has been utterly, irreversibly destroyed at this point. War with Iran, economic meltdown, environmental catastrophe, it hardly matters any more.
Nero Jr will never be held accountable, except possibly by history, and there will be plenty of money from think-tank shit-press operations to make sure that even history this clear will be "controversial".
Posted by euzoius at April 16, 2006 07:26 AM