[Vision2020] Army Officer Accuses His Generals of Iraq Failures

[Donovan Arnold]

Sunil,
   
  You wrote:
   
  "Bush has said that the military has been sent all the troops they requested. 
Why didn't the generals request more troops from the beginning? Why didn't 
they admit how poorly things were going and put it back in the lap of the 
administration?"

   
  First, the Generals did ask for more troops and did give honest appraisals of the situation, they just did not publish that information for you and the enemy to see in the Washington Post and New York Times.
   
  Second, there were no more troops to be had. 
   
  Third, more troops wouldn't solve the problem, it would just make the problem larger. The problem was the political objective, not military incompetence. They have guns not magic wands. This was Bush's blunder, not the officers, soldiers, or generals over there. 
   
  Fourth, it is UNACCEPTABLE for an officer to be going to the AP and personally attack his commanding officers. There are proper ways of going about filing a complaint about a misbehaving or incompetent commanding officer. What this guy did was wrong and dangerous. 
   
  Finally, we are still waiting for you to say, "I love my country, the United States of America."
   
   
  Best,
   
  Donovan 

Sunil Ramalingam <sunilramalingam at hotmail.com> wrote:
  Donovan,

On the one hand I don't disagree that the administration 'screwed this war 
up;' having said that, I think wars like this are always going to end in 
failure. But since the war began, up until he announced the 'surge,' Bush 
has said that the military has been sent all the troops they requested. 
Why didn't the generals request more troops from the beginning? Why didn't 
they admit how poorly things were going and put it back in the lap of the 
administration?

It seems to me that generals saw the treatment Gen. Shinseki received after 
saying that four to five hundred thousand troops would be needed for the 
war, and they didn't want the same treatment for themselves. That's their 
fault, isn't it?

Sunil

>From: Donovan Arnold 
>To: Tom Hansen , thansen at moscow.com, 
>vision2020 at moscow.com
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Army Officer Accuses His Generals of Iraq 
>Failures
>Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2007 10:38:06 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Complaining is one thing. But going to the media and to undermine the 
>command structure of the military during an actual military action is not a 
>right.
>
> And I don't believe him anyway. I think it is the administration's fault 
>for screwing this war up, not the generals.
>
> Best,
>
>Donovan
>


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