[Destro]

Novak seems to have 2 personalities - on television he seems pro Bush and in print he is anti-Bush.

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[anniegetyourgun]

Now I'm absolutely convinced that Novak is full of cow chips.

[Puppage]

With Sen. Edward M. Kennedy setting the Democratic line by........

.....giving aid & comfort to the enemy from the Senate floor.

[snooker]

This is just a waste of bandwidth. Novak is so wacky at times I have given up even reading what he has to say anymore. Is there some sort of brain disease going around at CNN?

[PhiKapMom]

Novak is slime! No way are most Generals in the Pentagon going to vote for Kerry and everyone can take that to the bank! Only Generals opposing Pres Bush are the Clintonite holdovers!

As for force levels -- go see Congress! These same Clintonite Generals have been blocking reform every step of the way as well. Them and Novak can stuff it.

Novak is overly impressed with himself and about the only people who would talk to him would be Clintonite Generals -- the ones that General Myers and others from the Joint Chiefs would like to get rid of for leaking.

[EternalVigilance]

This is nothing but malarkey.

Utterly unbelievable.

Novak is a nutcase.

[cwb]

Unless I misunderstood what I've been hearing, Bush has said on numerous occassions that the Generals will get all they want...they just have to ask. Karen Hughes was just on, saying that unlike Vietnam, this war is being fought by the military commanders, who are making the calls. So who's lying, here?

[Diogenesis]

Novak = DNC operative and American traitor

Two government officials orded Robert Novak
specifically not to publish the name of undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame
in his July 14 newspaper column.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

While Democrats roar, the generals are silent -- in public. Many confide that they will not cast their normal Republican votes on Nov. 2. They cannot bring themselves to vote for John Kerry, who has been a consistent Senate vote against the military. But they say they are unable to vote for Don Rumsfeld's boss, and so will not vote at all.

This is extremely hard to believe. I'd like to know if anyone backs up what Novak is saying.

[TrueBeliever9]

Novak: Pentagon generals won't vote for Bush

Can you please explain to me how you drew this conclusion? I have read the article and I do not draw that conclusion. Every general I know and every officer I know, retired and active, is NOT supporting Kerry! Can't stand him. So are you saying that Generals are going to stay home and not vote! That is the only conclusion that I can draw. PS I hate when people add their own subtitles to articles. Just post it as it is!

[the_Watchman]

Novak seems to have 2 personalities - on television he seems pro Bush and in print he is anti-Bush.

Do you detect an anti-Bush tone in this article? Simply reporting factual information which we don't want to hear does not make someone "anti-Bush". If the facts were slanted or there was a tone of glee, then I would understand the assessment.

The only shortcoming I see, at first blush, is an understatement of foreign troop support. He also missed mentioning that the South Koreans have pledged a relatively large number of troops soon.

[Darlin']

Novak has been slowly losing his grip on reality for several years.

[bra]

"But they say they are unable to vote for Don Rumsfeld's boss, and so will not vote at all."

Generals may be many things, but stupid is not one of them.

DE OPPRESSO LIBER

[xzins]

Not always.

I'm very pro-Bush, yet I always trusted Gen. Shinseki's estimate. I'd just retired from the army, and I had great confidence in the generals I'd ever run across. As a chaplain, I'd gotten to know many of them at a personal level, and as parishoners. So, I had come to trust the integrity of the other officers who been my commanders.

I do not think they make arbitrarily political decisions. That does not mean that their military decisions will not have an eye toward the political at times, but it does mean that I always saw them taking care of their troops and sincerely trying to win in their real and simulated combat situations.

Therefore, when Shinseki said 200,000 troops would be needed, I really didn't see it as that much more (relatively) than 150,000. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt....likewise with Rumsfeld because a 50,000 difference is not that much. Shinseki wanted two more divisions.

What he asked for was entirely consistent with the philosophy that Shinseki had been raised on.....absolutely, totally OVERWHELMING force. So much force that there's no doubt in the enemy's and the conquered population's mind that resistance is futile.

I can't fault Shinseki. There was nothing wrong with his estimate. (For those who like to brand him a "clintonoid," let me remind you that it takes a number of years to go from one star to four stars. I'd wager money that Shinseki's advance far preceded the tenure of bill clinton.)

The real damage here, folks, was done by bill clinton. He cut the army back to 10 divisions from 17-18 when he took over. Shinseki made a fair estimate about what was needed. Unfortunately, the backup divisions no longer existed. Now we have a huge rotation problem.

We need 17-18 divisions in this army for this world and these missions. I'm convinced that's true. I'm convinced that bill clinton decimated the force sustaining capability of the US Army. They blathered about 10 divisions being able to fight 2 simultaneous wars...you all remember that....but now we know the truth. He cut AT LEAST 5 divisions too many.

[CFC__VRWC]

Novak's jumped the shark - amazing how today's hysterical Bush hatred makes so many people do that.

[Badeye]

Good point. Novak has never quite forgiven Dubya and company for rejecting the call for the Bush Campaign to hire GOP types with "national campaign experience" in the spring of 2000, afer McCain was defeated in the primaries.

I'll also note its telling the guy works for CNN.....

[SolutionsOnly]

As is Ted Kennedy to the Democrats, Robert Novak is to conservatives. What an embarassment he is!

[theFIRMbss]

>Adhering to the principle of civilian control of the military and unvarying obedience to orders, the generals have not publicly expressed their opinion that Shinseki was much closer to the truth than Wolfowitz

Is it possible
that Bush had to get AWACS
from NATO (back then)

because there's some doubt
among political types
about how much they

can trust our forces?!
Could there be that big a split
between suits and stars?

[MNJohnnie]

Rummor and innuendo not fact. If Novack cannot get anyone to go on the record he should keep his mouth shut. This isn't journalism, it's typical anti-Bush propaganda. Rumsfield said if the ground commanders ask for more troops, they will get more troops. Novak is just the shill for the hard right who hate the Neo-cons more then they hate the Democrats. Since Novak has decended into the fever swamp, I am taking him off my reading list.

[TrueBeliever9]

Sorry for jumping on you Destro, truly! I just get so enraged when I read this poppycock!