[Vision2020] Army Officer Accuses His Generals of Iraq Failures

[Sunil Ramalingam]

Yes, we should ensure truth is the first casualty in war.  In this war, of 
course, that tradition has been honored from the beginning.

Sunil


>From: Donovan Arnold <donovanjarnold2005 at yahoo.com>
>To: Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com>, Vision 2020 <vision2020 at moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Army Officer Accuses His Generals of Iraq 
>Failures
>Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 02:28:43 -0700 (PDT)
>
>I would court marshal him.
>
>   1) It isn't the Generals fault, they are only able to do what is 
>possible with the situation they are given. There are not enough troops to 
>handle the problems the civilian government created.
>
>   2) A senior officer (Rank of 05) should not be speaking to the media and 
>publicly criticizing his commanding officers.
>
>   3) He is undermining the command structure of the military during a time 
>of military action.
>
>   4) He is being insubordinate.
>
>   Best,
>
>   Donovan
>
>
>
>Tom Hansen <thansen at moscow.com> wrote:
>   >From today's (April 27, 2007) Daily News Roundup Edition of the Army 
>Times -
>
>LTC Paul Yingling's opinion article "A Failure in Generalship"
>http://www.armedforcesjournal.com/2007/05/2635198
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Army officer accuses his generals of Iraq failures
>
>By Thomas Wagner - The Associated Press
>Posted : Friday Apr 27, 2007 16:31:05 EDT
>
>Read the opinion piece in Army Times' sister publication, Armed Forces
>Journal.
>
>BAGHDAD - An active-duty Army officer warns that the U.S. faces the 
>prospect
>of defeat in Iraq, blaming American generals for failing to prepare their
>forces for an insurgency and misleading Congress about the situation here.
>
>"For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps
>underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of
>Iraq's government and security forces, and failed to provide Congress with
>an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq," Lt. Col. Paul
>Yingling said in the article published Friday in the Armed Forces Journal.
>
>The generals not only went into Iraq preparing for a high-technology
>conventional war with too few soldiers but they also had no coherent plan
>for postwar stabilization. The generals also failed to tell the American
>public about the intensity of the insurgency their forces were facing,
>Yingling wrote.
>
>"The intellectual and moral failures common to America's general officer
>corps in Vietnam and Iraq constitute a crisis in American generalship," he
>said.
>
>Yingling served as deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. He
>has served two tours in Iraq, another in Bosnia and a fourth in Iraq's
>Operation Desert Storm in 1991.
>
>He attended the Army's elite School for Advanced Military Studies and has
>written for one of the Army's top professional journals, Military Review.
>
>Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has said the Iraqi government plans to take
>full control of security from the American-led forces before the end of the
>year. In February, coalition forces launched the Baghdad security plan,
>which calls for nearly 30,000 additional American troops, as well as
>thousands of Iraqi soldiers, most of whom will be deployed in violent
>Baghdad.
>
>Yingling appeared to welcome that change but suggested it is too little too
>late.
>
>"For most of the war American forces in Iraq have concentrated on large
>forward operating bases, isolated from the Iraqi people and focused on
>capturing or killing insurgents," he wrote. "In 2007, Iraq's grave and
>deteriorating condition offers diminishing hope for an American victory and
>portends an even wider and more destructive regional war."
>
>During the past decade, U.S. forces have done little to prepare for the 
>kind
>of brutal, adaptive insurgencies they are now fighting in Iraq and
>Afghanistan, Yingling said.
>
>"Given the lack of troop strength, not even the most brilliant general 
>could
>have devised the ways necessary to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq," he wrote.
>
>Yingling said he believes that no single civilian or military leader has
>caused what he regards as the current failure in Iraq.
>
>But Gen. Tommy R. Franks, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, Lt. Gen. Raymond T.
>Odierno and other top commanders in the Iraq war have been criticized by
>others as too slow to figure out the realities of the Iraq war and too
>optimistic in their assessments.
>
>Yingling said Congress must reform and better monitor the military officer
>promotion system it has to choose generals. The Senate should use its
>confirmation powers to hold accountable officers who fail to achieve U.S.
>aims.
>
>"We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the
>intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise
>civilian policy makers on the preparations needed for our security," he
>wrote.
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Seeya round town, Moscow.
>
>Tom Hansen
>Moscow, Idaho
>
>"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the 
>tranquil
>and steady dedication of a lifetime."
>
>--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
>
>
>
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