Soldiers And Their Leaders

Senator Clinton said that the Military did everything it could in Iraq. It was up to the Iraqis now. I would say the soldiers did everything they could. Their leaders, the generals, however, are another matter entirely. John Ralston Saul said back in 1993 in Voltaire's Bastards that it was problematic whether the American Military could win any fight anymore, other than those fights were there was an enormous imbalance of forces, such as Gulf War I. The reason was the generals. They had become men of reason, businessmen...public relations. The generals might not know how to fight. Certainly the politicians don't. Consider: Donald Rumsfeld spent years working on his vision of the Military, the sleek surgical incisive forces, the smart bombs... He spent so much time that he could not properly plan for Iraq. And no one called him on it until late 2006. The Secretary of Defense could not fight. His generals could not fight. The Administration could not fight. They leave it to those who are giving their fullest measure, fighting and dying every day.