It must feel good to perch over a laptop and dish smarmy, myopic bullshit for a non-living. I mean, I can smell J*ff G*ldstein’s self-satisfied farts all the way down here in Tejas, and they smell way better than mine. So I’m going to put on his “condescending asshole” cap for a moment and sling some smack his way to see if it’s as fun as he makes it appear.
Last Saturday, Cap’n Smug dismissed the motivations of the retired generals speaking out against Rumsfeld as potentially self-serving:
The fact that these generals waited until after they retired to make their grievances known—rather than stepping down in protest during their active duty—bespeaks the potential, at least, for ulterior motives for their criticisms that have less to do with Iraq than with other political and territorial considerations.
He believes the chafing comes from the old guard’s uneasiness over a civilian reshaping the military. He also believes their outspoken dissent is harming our Great Nation:
For a few retired US generals to be calling for Rumsfeld’s resignation publicly even as we are embroiled in that battle sends a message to our enemies that the generals believe we are losing. And, as everyone with a shred of intellectual honesty knows that not to be the case—that the only way we can lose is if the public will is sapped—calling for Rumsfeld’s ouster now not only sends the wrong message to Americans, but it likewise sends the wrong message to Iraqis, the vast majority of whom are optimistic about the direction of the country.
So retired generals speaking up sends a bad message to our enemies, does it? And it could open the floodgates to sapping the public will (our only weak spot, apparently)? But to protect their integrity, it would have been better if these generals were “stepping down in protest during their active duty?”
Uh, I hate to break it to you, Cap’n, but several generals stepping down in protest while in service would send a much, much harsher message to Americans and their “enemies” about our odds for success. I’m fascinated that you would criticize the impact of their current actions on your “Victory P.R. at all costs” paradigm while proscribing a purer form of protest that would blow it out of the water.
I’m not just flaming G*ldstein a week late for the hell of it, though. The NYT today confirms that criticism and dissension are proliferating in the active military ranks:
An Army major who is an intelligence specialist said: “The history I will take away from this is that the current crop of generals failed to stand up and say, ‘We cannot do this mission.’ They confused the cultural can-do attitude with their responsibilities as leaders to delay the start of the war until we had an adequate force. I think the backlash against the general officers will be seen in the resignation of officers” who might otherwise have stayed in uniform.
One Army colonel enrolled in a Defense Department university said an informal poll among his classmates indicated that about 25 percent believed that Mr. Rumsfeld should resign, and 75 percent believed that he should remain. But of the second group, two-thirds thought he should acknowledge errors that were made and “show that he is not the intolerant and inflexible person some paint him to be,” the colonel said.
Whoa. Cap’n Smug may actually see his Platonic Form of protest become a reality: military officers may up and resign over the way this war is being handled. I’d like to believe he won’t criticize the resignees for following his advice for “how to file a proper grievance with Rumsfeld without having your integrity questioned,” but I’m not holding my breath.
Now, any god-fearing wingnut spin doctor will proclaim 75% support for Rumsfeld from the DoD student-officer population to be a sign of his tremendous popularity, but stop and think about it for a moment. Fully a _quarter_ of these officers admitted to another soldier that they think Rummy should quit. I’m opening an office pool for bets on what that number would normally be for a Defense Secretary, and I’m taking the “less than 5%” square.
In the military, dissension and/or questioning your leadership out loud can be considered a mortal sin. Seeing 25% cop to a total lack of faith to the guy at the top of the pyramid is shocking. Knowing that two-thirds of the other officers feel like Rummy should publicly admit to mistakes (generally another military culture no-no, I’m told) is also extremely damning. There’s no group on earth more inclined to approve of Cap’n Smug’s fall-in-line-or-else brand of propaganda, but it seems a growing number of them can only take so much crap before common sense prevails.
I eagerly anticipate G*ldstein’s white-washing of this new development so he can sleep at night instead of tossing and turning over how many people have died unwillingly for the causes he supports.
This is just like Vietnam–the tide really turned towards pulling out when enlisted military started to rebel.
[...] We’ve dinged the wingnut bloggers of the world before for their willful ignorance regarding troop abuse and death, as well as not admitting to themselves that, at the very least, a sizable minority of troops do not want to be there. [...]