You Don't Want This Guy Mad At You

Retired US Army Colonel David H. Hackworth is mad as hell.

Hackworth is nobody's liberal, that's for damn sure. But he does love the soldiers, sailors, and Marines of the United States--both current and former. He also demands honesty--from himself, his beloved soldiers, and, certainly, from those who are responsible for the lives of those soldiers. Hackworth is an old-school officer. I'm sure he was a total slave driver, but he wouldn't ask anyone to do anything that he wouldn't or couldn't do, and he took very seriously his responsibility for the lives of his troops. He expects the same from the Pentagon and White House. Obviously, he's been more than disappointed lately.

America would be a whole lot safer if the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, was flying for Virgin Airlines, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was competing on “Survivor.” Both war leaders have done so miserable a job honchoing the military side of our critical conflict against global terrorism, and in the process so jeopardized our national security, that they should be sacked for dereliction of duty.

Contrary to continuing political spin, Iraq and Afghanistan both are running sores with little promise of even a long-term turnaround, and our world today is far more dangerous than it was before 9/11. Unless there's a 180-degree change in overall strategy, the USA is doomed to follow the same bloody path through these two brutal killing fields that the Soviet Union took in Afghanistan.

The mighty sword that Rumsfeld and Myers inherited four years ago – the finest military force in the world – is now chipped and dulled. And the word is that it will take at least a decade to get our overextended, bone-tired soldiers and Marines and their worn-out gear back in shape.

Top generals like former NATO commander Wes Clark and a squad of retired and active-duty four-stars warned long before the invasion of Iraq: Don’t go there. It doesn’t involve our national security. It’s not the main objective in our war with international terrorism. Even retired four-star Colin Powell said that if we go to Iraq and break the china, we own it. But know-it-all Rumsfeld and go-along-to-get-along Myers totally ignored this sound military advice.

Before the invasion of Iraq, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, a distinguished soldier with counter-guerrilla campaigns in Vietnam and Bosnia under his pistol belt, was asked by Congress how many soldiers he thought would be needed for the occupation phase in Iraq. His response: A minimum of 200,000.

Rumsfeld treated this courageous soldier – who left half a foot in the Vietnam Delta – like a leper for telling a truth that was obviously contrary to party lockstep. And Shinseki’s spot-on troop estimate was discredited and ridiculed by senior Pentagon chicken hawks like Paul Wolfowitz, a man who dodged the draft during Vietnam and wouldn’t know a tank from a Toyota.

I don't agree with all or even most of Hackworth's politics, but his concern for the armed forces is unimpeachable. He calls it down the middle when it comes to troop welfare, and he's someone that should be heard.

To sum up: Fake cowboy Bush broke the US Armed Forces.