Fighting a war with 535 generals

townhall.com ^ | March 23 2007 | Michael Franc

[Jacquerie]

The Central Command's top lawyer," one Air Force official acknowledged, "repeatedly refused to permit strikes even when the targets were unambiguously military in nature". -snip-

[Jacquerie]

Did a search, didn't find it.

[pankot]

lawyers, Liars; same thing.

[Diogenesis]

Just another lawyer who wants America exterminated.
Execute the traitor.

[flynmudd]

I know a lot of lawyer jokes:

1. The devil visited a lawyer's office and made him an offer. "I can arrange some things for you, " the devil said. "I'll increase your income five-fold. Your partners will love you; your clients will respect you; you'll have four months of vacation each year and live to be a hundred. All I require in return is that your wife's soul, your children's souls, and their children's souls rot in hell for eternity."

The lawyer thought for a moment. "What's the catch?" he asked.

My take on lawyers, they are a necessary evil sometimes but I don't believe that they should be on the battlefield unless they are on the front line with a target on their foreheads.

[jmaroneps37]

The rat showed exactly why it was so awful for the stay at home conservative useful idiots to put him in charge. Those who did not stay home please don't bother to Freep mail me. I'm in no mood for lame talk about how it was the Reagan democrats who stayed home. Anyone who happens to be still registered as a Democrat but has voted GOP since Reagan is just as much a conservative Republican as anyone else.If you say it was them that stayed home you just re-enforce my assertion. If you want to make the argument that it was them that stayed home, save it. Limbaugh is in a better position to recognize it was the stay at home conservative useful idiots( registered democrat or Republican) that brought this situation about and he talks about it regularly so if the trust hurts argue with him. Those that stayed home are as guilty as the rat.

[atomic conspiracy]

What's the difference between a lawyer and a vulture?

One is a foul-smelling, carrion-eating scavenger abhorred by civilized beings; the other is a bird.

[flynmudd]

God decided to take the devil to court and settle their differences once and for all. When Satan heard this, he laughed and said, "And where do you think you're going to find a lawyer?"

[flynmudd]

What is the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
A tick falls off of you when you die.

[mortal19440]

It is past time for the Line to retake their posions of leadership and tell the Staff assholes to advise and shut up. They don't make or execute policy. The JAG folks have too much input to the tactical side of this conflict. Keep them in the Green Zone and feed them BS.

[mewzilla]

Fighting a war with 535 generals

The acronym REMF springs to mind.

[flynmudd]

Aren't they already full of BS? Why oh why are there lawyers involved in ground operations? Who is going to sue, the neighborhood goat or camel? I will never understand how we won WWII and can't seem to win anything since. Maybe because we kept out the press and lawyers. I have yet to meet a lawyer (and I have met a lot of them) that I liked.

[omega4179]

After ww2 we abolished the War Department and haven't declared nor won a war since.

[Uncle Chip]

Rule #217 from Sun Tzus Art of War: Fire, imprison, or execute all lawyers before engaging the enemy.

[flynmudd]

Why didn't we just declare WAR then?

[syriacus]

Jack Murtha and a bunch of old guys in Congress are trying to tell our young men, who are risking their lives overseas, how they should run their war.

If I remember correctly, libs said they were against this type of thing during the Vietnam War.

[PGalt]

We need more generals. Fighting a war with 535 politicians is doomed for failure.

Islam very leisurely opens up command and control centers on our soil, and has a 4-moom imam program an army.

[Smokin' Joe]

What is the difference between a lawyer and a rooster?

A rooster gets up in the morning and clucks defiance...

[GladesGuru]

"Keep them in the Green Zone and feed them BS."

Great idea!

How many lawyer jokes are there?

Answer: Only three - all the rest are true stories.

[NCLaw441]

What's the difference between a lawyer and a vulture?


Removable wingtips

[jude24]

This title is a little misleading. the 535 generals to whom the Title refers are the 435 Representatives and the 100 Senators. It is unfortunate that the Congress feels the need to micromanage military policy. Unfortunately, the Constitution does give Congress this power ("to make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces"). They feel this need to intervene, however, after a counter-insurgency that can only be described as disastrous. (Even the Administration has done so.) Congress, in typical fashion, is going off half-cocked because of a very real problem. They'll probably make matters worse by meddling, but they're doing so because they're frightened about the situation in which we find ourselves - a bitter insurgency that we have only barely contained.

A separate issue is the use of lawyers in operational law for the military. The article is right that some military commanders are relying upon JAG lawyers to give them fire-no fire advice. This is the bed we made when we started trying military commanders for war crimes, starting with Capt. Wirz from Andersonville through the Nuremberg trials. We ourselves set up an entire International Law apparatus which limits what we can do militarily. We bound ourselves by the Geneva Conventions, which tell us we must limit collateral damage as best as we can - and we can't just duck those protocols. Furthermore, Congress has criminalized violations of Geneva in 18 U.S.C. 2441. So, yes, commanders need to know if their actions are acceptable under Geneva - and it is a good idea to consult a lawyer when the stakes are that high.

I don't know specifics regarding the military strike that was nixed (and that is a key failing of this article - it uses vagueness to try to whip up a hysterical response, but doesn't explain why the JAG objected to the strike. We don't know if his objections were valid, but can only take the author's word for it.), but it is not impossible to imagine situations where it would not be worth the collateral damage to take out a particular target and would be necessary to wait for another opportunity. Sometimes waiting leads to tragic and unfortunate consequences, but America long ago decided "win at all costs" was not an acceptable policy.