By Jack Kelly
Jewish World Review
The Senate Democratic Policy Committee held a "hearing" last Monday to permit retired military officers to bash Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld before news cameras.
The witnesses were retired Major Generals John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, and Paul Eaton, the who was responsible for training Iraqi security forces; and retired Marine Col. Thomas Hammes, an expert on counterinsurgency warfare.
"Donald Rumsfeld is not a competent wartime leader," Gen. Batiste said. "He surrounds himself with like-minded and compliant subordinates who do not grasp the importance of the principles of war, the complexities of Iraq, or the human dimension of war."
The Democrats in attendance applauded that and similar statements. But they turned a deaf ear when their expert witnesses told them a pullout from Iraq would lead to disaster.
"The result will be a civil war of some magnitude that will turn into a regional mess," Gen. Batiste said in response to a question from Sen. Hillary Clinton. He and the other witnesses said the number of U.S. troops in Iraq should be increased, and that we should be prepared to stay for a long haul.
I took the quotes above from the balanced account of the hearing by the Washington Post's Dana Milbank. But while Mr. Milbank deserves praise, his colleagues at the Post, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times who did stories last Sunday on a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) issued in April deserve a horsewhipping.
Read the Rest...
No comments:
Post a Comment