Wrath of McGrath Blog Peace Now: Dispatches from the Front Blowing the Whistle on the War: Gross Military Malfeasance in Iraq, No Stars Here!
Blowing the Whistle on the War: Gross Military Malfeasance in Iraq, No Stars Here!
Written by Jim McGrath Saturday, 01 March 2008 21:45
Malfeasance by the generals is not limited to Iraq. Military incompetence and culpability exist very close to home and very near the top. They exist at the highest echelons of the Pentagon. They exist on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, especially Air Force General Richard Myers and Marine Corps General Peter Pace, both world-class military “yes men.” Packing a total of eight stars, four apiece, they were two of Rumsfeld’s most reliable stooges, issuing rosy scenarios on the Iraq war, no matter that that whole country was aflame. History will render a very harsh judgment on both the military and civilian ends of this war. Bungling inside the Pentagon, from the Defense Secretary on down was breathtaking! The performance of Rumsfeld, Bremer and Wolfowitz was so ludicrous; they looked like the three stooges. Pity this was not comedy.
There are many generals in Iraq. If all of them assembled for roll-call, one would see more stars than there are in the Milky Way. Riveted on dress-green uniforms and combat fatigues, in galaxies of four, clusters of three, two in a row, or just one shining alone, they glitter like tinsel. In fact, if combined with all the medals, battle ribbons, and other colorful clutter on the generals’ uniforms, they would provide enough ornaments to decorate the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center.
The generals in Iraq are military grandees. Standing tall in front of troop formations, their name tags as prominent as their stars, they cut quite a figure. Unlike the rank and file G.I.’s they command, their spotless, starched fatigues or immaculately pressed Class A uniforms have not a speck of battlefield mud or blood on them. They are Franks, Sanchez, Casey, and Abizaid, among others, and they have become household names. Generals are known for barking out orders, and expecting instant compliance. In Iraq, we have the case of the generals who did not bark back at Commander Bush. If they had, especially early on, the war would have been over.
Their cheery messages on the war, endlessly repeated, are equally well known: “making progress”, “slow but steady”, “three more months”, “six more months”, “another year.” Far more apt would be “from here to eternity.” All that cheer is in tune with Commander Bush’s basic theme song “Stay the Course,” trumpeted endlessly from the White House. The generals’ chorus line has a steady beat that goes on and on and conceals the toll of G.I’s lost, the killing of civilians, the gravely-injured soldiers arriving at Walter Reed Army Hospital, and the huge financial cost. Meanwhile the doomsday clock ticks steadily on toward Bush’s “Two Trillion Dollar Mistake,” and another Vietnam looms on the horizon. The Iraq generals would have been right at home in Vietnam, especially at its celebrated “5 O’clock follies,” where thirty-five years ago Westmoreland & Co. peddled a similar litany of lies to the press.
The combat zones in Iraq have become “killing fields” where G.I.’s heroically fight and die, and countless Iraqi civilians get killed in what amounts to “shooting galleries.” We have destroyed an ancient beautiful land, once the cradle of history, now the victim of colossal U.S. hubris. In Vietnam it was only a village. In Iraq the stakes are higher. Now we must destroy the whole country in order to save it.”
Condemnation of the generals in Iraq does not demean the sacrifice of the fallen G.I.’s. Their courage and heroism is of a singular kind, and stands on its own. Their sacrifice is forever immortalized in the biblical words of Jesus: “Greater love hath no man, than that he lay down his life for his friend.” Every fallen G.I. in Iraq fits that bill. Every death honors a fellow comrade-in-arms. Too bad the generals did not show similar courage.
Courage comes in different shapes and sizes, of course. One kind is facing the enemy in combat. Another is telling the truth and letting the chips fall where they may. With truth come consequences, of course, sometimes serious. The consequences of going public on this war, not in retirement, not safely back on the home front, not in civilian grey flannel suits, but on active duty in Iraq, in full combat fatigues, stars glittering, would have been explosive. True courage would have been if Franks, Sanchez, Casey, or Abizaid told the obvious truth: the war was a hopeless blunder, bungled from the start, with grossly inadequate troop levels, and that ordering another GI into such carnage to get his ass shot off, was an automatic death sentence and intolerable.
That action and the reaction of the media, Capitol Hill, and the American people to that message would have created a political firestorm. It would be another shot heard round the world. The fallout would be huge, but it would fall on Bush not on the commanding generals in Iraq. There would be presidential fury and reprisal, of course, but with the vast unpopularity of Bush and this war, there is no way Congress or the American people would have sanctioned the court-martial of top American commanders in Iraq for telling the truth. Far more likely would be a parade for them up New York’s 5th Avenue, like the one honoring General Douglas MacArthur’s return from Korea. It would be a red letter day, for once not written in blood. Still not one of them had the balls to do it.
By doing the right thing, the generals might have had to forgo getting another star or even give one up. A star is a star, of course, and through the wonders of military alchemy, silver is transmitted into gold. We are talking money here! Instead of a $100,000 a year retirement, they would have to settle for $95,000. What a sacrifice! That loss would be moot, of course, in light of the megabucks certain to come from the inevitable best-seller: The Generals Who Said No: Presidential War Policy Killed in Action in Iraq. Still, not one of them was (is) willing to sacrifice a star to tell the truth, a truth they all know and have admitted to each other in private, a truth that would have saved thousands of lives, tens of thousands of injuries, and untold billions of dollars. The dead G.I.’s in Iraq will have no retirement, let alone retirement pay.
Getting back to malfeasance, Marine General Peter Pace wins a gold star for his incredible performance. Terrified by the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, he viewed a potential outbreak of “gayism” in the ranks a greater threat than Al Qaeda, insurgency, or civil war. His lunacy on this point was surpassed only by his absurd statements on the war’s progress, one of which put the only dent in his military career. After one of the war’s worst weeks, when Pace characterized the battlefield situation as “fine,” his fawning finally backfired, and a craven Congress denied him the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the fifth star that goes with it. Some thought he would retire after that, but the general is made of sterner stuff and decided to remain in the service.
Malfeasance among the generals soars when they do retire. After shedding their uniforms, with all of their stars protected and probably an additional one awarded for “distinguished service”; the truth finally comes tumbling out. Stars in the bank, truth now affordable, and talk quite literally cheap, they finally level with the American people on the war. “Inadequate force levels”! “Shortage of armor”! “Wrong war, wrong place”! What a difference civilian status makes for loosening the tongue. Better late than never, of course, but too late for those fallen in Iraq and their families. The generals have a lot to answer for in this life and the next.
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