The author levels charges of war atrocities against the Marines, a very serious charge. Since it is such a serious charge, wouldn’t it be prudent and indeed the just thing to do to wait until we have all the facts about what happened before making such damning assumptions? What ever happened to “innocent until proven guilty?” Shouldn’t we wait until a full investigation (which is underway) is completed before making such charges? And yet, the author assumes the guilt of the Marines in question and uses that assumption to condemn the Secretary of Defense and the war in general. He proceeds to parrot the Left’s self-serving accusations of incompetence, bad planning and lies; all based on the assumption of guilt of the Haditha Marines.
But then, this really isn’t about war atrocities, is it? No, this is about scoring political points. If there are political points to be scored against the real enemy (President Bush), what do the lives and reputations of a few Marines matter, right? The important thing is: getting Democrats elected. The Left can claim all they want that they “support the troops” but, when the Left is so eager to jump on allegations of wrong doing without knowing what really happened, their claims ring very hollow.
In all likelihood, this general would have done as Norman Schwarzkoft did, use an inordinantly large number of troops to secure victory.
The plans these generals have are:
A. Take the country
B. Overthrow the leader
C. Immediately come home
The guys who are the commanding generals now are the guys who were first leutenants in 68,69 and 70 in Vietnam. Their thinking is overly impregnated with the thought - Win and Leave.
We kept troops in Germany for 61 years (and counting). It is a little absurd to think we can take a country of 30,000,000 - 40,000,000 and then leave in a year.
This is 21st Centruy warfare. These generals need to learn to fight 21st century wars.
I sent a similar message directly to the general at his new company:
sales@kleinsteel.com