Wheeee, gee Mom, look at me, I’m a blogger!  Oh, hi there, pardon me, excuse the exuberance. I’ve never blogged before.

For those of you unfamiliar with me consider me to be like Dennis Miller, only my rants will be shorter and confined to the world of 3D. That’s death, doom, and destruction for us ordinary folks, or what the high and mighty over at places like RAND, American Enterprise Institute Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Brookings like to call, with suitable gravitas, geopolitics, and international security.

Anyway, I promise to be suitable restrained, serious, and buttoned up in the future. No rolling on the floor, breaking out in hysterical laughter, when I read the morning news. Hmmm, on second thought I am writing in the Dubya era so I better not make any promises. But I’ll give it the old college try.

Hmmm, let’s see, whatever shall I write about. Oh hey, here’s something that appeals to the part of me that is a former E-3 Navy deck ape, back towards the end of the Vietnam War. American generals are criticizing the Bush administration in general and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in particular. What’s the problem? It appears they are aggrieved that they weren’t being listened to in the run up to the invasion of Iraq, their advice was given short shrift or ignored, and they were treated rudely.  Just like Rodney Dangerfield they didn’t get any respect. You mean? Yes, that’s right. They were treated like ENLISTED MEN. Gasp, the horror, the horror! Hey, guys, welcome to the noncommissioned ranks.

Oh, all right. I couldn’t resist. Actually, there is something serious about all this. In part, those concerned about Iraq should be worried. Those who criticize the generals on the grounds that they are undermining or challenging the traditional and totally proper subordination of the military to civilian authorities miss the point. First, the generals are doing no such thing. While one wishes these profiles of courage actually had the guts to resign while still on active duty, when their resignation actually might have given people pause, if they felt so angry about this I suppose it is unrealistic to expect them not to worry about lost income and being able to put the kids through school. Second, the generals are sending some other, equally, if not more important messages. These would be as follows.

Keep in mind that all these generals got their start in or shortly after the end of Vietnam. They all saw what happened to the Army afterwards; how it imploded into what former Any Chief of Staff Ed Meyers famously called a “hollow” army. When these three and four starts criticize Rumsfeld they are saying in not such subtle language, that when the U.S. military starts collapsing due to unsustainable operating tempos, worn out equipment, and inability to attract or retain necessary personnel that it wasn’t their fault. They knew what an occupation of Iraq would require and they were dissed.

Even more dire, they are saying, we have seen the future of Iraq and it is not pleasant. How bad is it? Well, just think the witches of Macbeth, “Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.”

A final implication is that if you thought Iraq was a screwup that’s nothing if you are actually stupid enough to attack Iran. By the way, Tony Karon’s Rootless Cosmpolitan has a nice piece on this.

Finally, given all the sturm und drang about the general’s criticism it is really quite amazing how few people really understand the military. I think Phillip Gold, writing for UPI, put it quite well recently when he wrote, “We are, alas, a nation of military illiterates. I would suggest, therefore, that retired and — sometimes — active military officers constitute a priceless resource for educating the American people, on all sides of all issues pertaining to present and future American wars of choice.” 

Personally I would draw the line at colonel level. Go above that and you run the risk of dealing with brain damage. 

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