US officer slams generals over Iraq war

[101st Airborne]

Here is an incredibly interesting article that has appeared on todays Australian national on line news.
This guy has a lot of guts, but by throwing double or nothing, will either get promoted to general or assigned to cookhouse duties.

Saturday Apr 28 08:04 AEST
An active-duty US Army officer has criticised US generals for failing to prepare the military and the country for war in Iraq, and urged Congress to intervene.

In a rare public airing of a vigorous debate within the US military, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul Yingling compared generals' management of Iraq to their conduct in Vietnam and warned of a crisis facing the armed forces due to the "intellectual and moral failures" of US generals broadly.

"For the second time in a generation, the United States faces the prospect of defeat at the hands of an insurgency," wrote Yingling, an Iraq war veteran and commander of an Army unit, in a journal article. "These debacles are not attributable to individual failures, but rather to a crisis in an entire institution: America's general officer corps."

Yingling did not single out any general for criticism.

The mid-ranking officer's cover article in the May issue of Armed Forces Journal reflects the debate among officers about the conduct of the Iraq war as well as the decisions and public statements made by commanders advising civilian policymakers.

Yingling repeated, for example, a widely voiced criticism that generals did not raise publicly the concerns held privately about the level of US troops being committed by policymakers to secure Iraq in the early stages of the war.

Then, with too few troops, they could not devise a strategy to stabilise Iraq, he argued.

Yingling called on Congress to overhaul the way officers rise in rank to the level of general. That, he said, is needed to yield officers who are intelligent, creative and courageous.

He said generals should be subject to reviews that consider the opinions of junior officers. He said Congress also should modify the promotion system by having the Senate review the education and professional writing of nominees for three- and four-star general.

Congress also should exercise its authority to confirm the rank of a retiring general, and reduce that rank for a general who failed to give lawmakers an accurate, candid assessment of strategic probabilities.


?AAP 2007

[Collo]

The thing is it's not the Generals fault, it's the politicans who have the Generals balls in a vice.

[101st Airborne]

Yeah Collo, but the point is that there is "fault" at all. There shouldn't be fault.

[Collo]

The fault lies with the Politicans.

As you know down under, military operations are run by the military. The PM knows that the best way to fight this war is to let the Generals run it. Sadly in the US the Generals have to bend to the needs of people like Madamme Screecher to get funds for their troops.

The fault is the pressure lies with politicans who a majroity of have no military training want to run the war. How many good Generals have we seen fall because of the politicans like to get their way.

[101st Airborne]

The thing is that since the world war, wars have been in fact police actions, fighting for someone else.
Korea, Viet Nam and now Iraq.
These wars are not popular back home. During the second world war a national emergency was proclaimed and all the people in the US joined together as one to defeat the Japs who attacked them at Pearl.
When 911 happened, the government attempted to rally the people to another "Pearl", saying that America was attacked and "we are at war" and other stuff.
It hasn't worked. It stayed a police action for most of America.
Therein lies the problem for America, Britain and Australia today. Police actions will always have resistance at home. A resistance that builds until governments fall. This is happening in all three countries.
In the end, the people take a " let them all kill each other" attitude. Bring our troops home.
With that attitude prevailing, little wonder that the military can't get the political support it needs to carry through and win.
As  I said yesterday, the war is being lost at home.

[Collo]

I said yesterday, the war is being lost at home

You're not the first one to say that mate.  It all stems from the negative, selfish attitude that is being generated by opposition parties and the media.

[cowboy]

no draft doger should lead a country to the war