Posted 4/16/2006 12:46:00 PM by Douglas

Who would listen to a general, anyway?

Flaws in our civilians are one thing; the failure of the Pentagon's military leaders is quite another. Those are men who know the hard consequences of war but, with few exceptions, acted timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard. When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction. A few of the most senior officers actually supported the logic for war. Others were simply intimidated, while still others must have believed that the principle of obedience does not allow for respectful dissent. The consequence of the military's quiescence was that a fundamentally flawed plan was executed for an invented war, while pursuing the real enemy, al-Qaeda, became a secondary effort.

Wow. It's one thing for Michael Moore to post such a statement on his blog, but for a Marine General and former member of the Joint Chiefs to go public with such a stirring condemnation, maybe the administration will begin to question its own infallibility.