Five Years of Broken (Joe Galloway)
The link above from Military.com is a great rundown of our current situation and the legacy of Bush jr. There are no grand revelations in the article, but to me the greatest significance is who wrote the article. I have posted Galloway before, in a series of emails back and forth between Joe and a Rumsfeld aide years ago concerning the absolute lack of military planning in the Iraq theater on Rumsfeld's part.
Galloway is a military man's journalist. He is acknowledged by many military officers as being one of the best, if not, the best. He is the only civilian to ever be awarded the Bronze Star for his action in the Battle of The Ia Drang. He also co-wrote We Were Soldiers with Col. Hal Moore.
EXCERPT
I can promise the president from Texas that this ill-begotten, poorly planned and mismanaged war will be his lasting legacy when, in 22 months, he packs his bags and heads home to the ranch in Crawford.
Iraq will hang around his neck - and those of Cheney and Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle and Douglas Feith - like a rotting albatross for all the days of their lives.
No doubt the contractors who are bloated like ticks on the billions they've sucked out of the public trough will write the checks to build George W. Bush a really fine presidential library on the campus of Southern Methodist University.
All of it will be a lie, just like the lies his administration told to beat the war drums five years ago.
How will the curators portray the broken military, the broken Constitution, the broken laws, the forever broken troops who came home missing limbs or eyes or pieces of their brains, the broken promises to cherish and care for the families of those who were killed and those very wounded veterans?
How will they portray the corruption, both real and spiritual, that this man and his accomplices have visited upon a nation and a people who once could be proud of their place in this world?
How and why did so many Americans, including so many in Congress and in the media, sit idly by while so much that was precious to us was bent and twisted and broken by men who had the power and the money to do the right things but chose to do the wrong things?
and a Desert Storm vet makes this comment on Military.com :
I just think that it is important for TeeBone and PMCaudle to understand that there are military supporters like me amongst Democrats and Progressives. And we are not whining. If you reduce political discourse in this country to "us"versus "them" and start slinging names around you have just done the terrorists job for them.
I've been sitting on the fence along time with this war. I, too, feel that leaders are elected to make tough decisions. I understand that as a member of the military, you are required to carry out orders. As a civilian, you protect (as I did once) my right to express my opinion. Frankly, my opinion on Iraq (not Afghanistan) has been the same as Joe Galloway's since the beginning. I just don't blog or go to peace rallies.
As a veteran of the Desert Storm I have felt extremely lucky that I worked for the first President Bush. As a combat veteran himself, he knew how to listen to generals, establish goals and recognize a quagmire. I also feel extremely lucky that my fellow soldiers didn't have the kind of duties that present soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan have. You guys are amazing.
That being said, it's too bad some of you didn't read the side-bio of Joe Galloway. This isn't some Democrat or Liberal trying to score some political points. He has a long established career of military journalism with commendation s by numerous military officials. There are also plenty of Republican leaders and ex-military speaking out against this war. Statistically speaking, more generals than any war since the Civil War.
So you can continue to whine about the Democrats whining or play the victim of politics. In the meantime, we "progressive/liberal/Democratic" vets will be vocal about making sure that you come home safe or get the support you need.
Why do I? Because it could have been me.
More about Galloway:
Galloway in Nam
Mar 28, 2007
The Realistic Patriot
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6 comments:
The drums of impeachment are starting to beat...low but steady. Time to make Iraq front and center and make even the bitches that are John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, two chickenshit senators who have sacrificed NOTHING for Iraq, to disavow shrub's actions.
To all servicemen and women, progressives want nothing more than your safe return to the US. No one in their right mind would place a fellow American in harm's way. Only traitors and America-haters would do that.
I always wondered how the Nazi party was able to gain control in the 30s. Now I know. I just watched the most ridiculous video of some Republican pretending to not remember their actions last year while using their government office for Republican election rigging. This is a blueprint of mismanaged incompetence and partisan gamesmanship. I am sick of Major dems pussyfooting around too... I want ACCOUNTABILITY. I want some assholes TRIED in a COURT OF LAW- not just questioned. It's been a dark five years in American history- and we are about to see the housing economy go bellyup as a direct result of this No accountability Corporate Raider bullshit. Goddamn I hope the whole Gonzales thing busts this corpse wide open so the country can see the maggots that running the country.
"I always wondered how the Nazi party was able to gain control in the 30s."
I'll find the quote for you. I had it saved on favs... then the dumb blonde bought a new pc...
It's something like, "create a fear, questions patriotism,..." Oh hell! Give me a minute.
I found it!
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Sound familiar??
Thanks, Z!
My pleasure dear!
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