BUSH HAS WRECKED THE MILITARY-- WILL THE PROFESSIONAL OFFICER CORPS STRIKE BACK?

Bush... with props

Surely none of the Bush Regime's lies and deceptions is more galling than their cynical use of the military in their increasingly bathetic pleas to the America public for... complacency. But the time for complacency is over in America; the time for Bush is over in America; and the time for the military allowing itself to be used as a prop for a ruthless gang of political thugs is also about over. When Bush plaintively demands that we left the soldiers in the field do their job and not have politicians-- i.e.- Democrats who we have elected-- micro-manage the war, only a veritable Rip Van Winkle will not be cognizant that the hallmark of Bush's wars have been grotesque, unrelenting and catastrophic political interference with the military every step of the way. Experienced professional military officers who have dared to speak honestly about the harebrained schemes and made-for-disaster initiatives by the gaggle of ideologues and cowardly draft dodgers and chickenhawks who make up this Regime, have been summarily fired.

We've been hearing from quite a few former top U.S. generals castigating the Bush Regime for their misuse of the military. Today's NY Times story on General John Batiste, Army Career Behind Him, General Speaks Out on Iraq, isn't unique. The Times describes his words as "powerful, inflammatory" and VoteVets.org has turn them into TV ads that are being used in congressional races to fight Republican incumbents who have rubber stamped the toxic Bush Regime agenda. Take a look at the one that will help remove the contemptible Susan Collins from her senate seat in Maine:



Other rubber stamp Republicans who have ads like this dedicated to them include New Hampshire Senator John Sununu, Minnesota Senator Norm Coleman, Virginia Senator John Warner and congressmembers Mary Bono (CA), Phil English (PA), Randy Kuhl (NY), Jim Walsh (NY), Heather Wilson (NM), Jo Ann Emerson (MO), Tim Johnson (IL), Mike Rogers (MI), Fred Upton (MI), and Mike Castle (DE). I can think of at least ONE HUNDRED others who are as exactly as deserving as these.

Batiste is a lifelong Republican. "Having quit the Army in anger at what he calls mismanagement of the Iraq war, he says he chose a second career far from Washington and the Pentagon so that he could speak freely on military issues."

General Batiste said he chose to go public with his critique of the war effort only after 30 years of honoring the Army’s rules of silence. He said it was that time commanding 22,000 troops in combat, in 2004 and 2005, that convinced him that American fighting in Iraq was short of vision as well as troops.

“There was never enough. There was never a reserve,” he said. “Again and again, we had to move troops by as many as 200 miles out of our area of operations to support another sector. We would pull troops out of contact with the enemy and move them into contact with the enemy somewhere else. The minute we’d leave, the insurgents would pick up on that, and kill everybody who had been friendly.”

General Batiste was among a handful of retired generals first calling last year for the resignation of Donald H. Rumsfeld as defense secretary.

In the wake of Katrina and last week's tornado in Kansas more and more governors are speaking out about the Bush Regime's abuse of the National Guard and how it is impacting their states. "As wildfires, floods and tornadoes batter the nation, the readiness of the National Guard to deal with those disasters, as well as potential terrorist assaults, is so depleted by deployments to foreign wars and equipment shortfalls that Congress is considering moves to curtail the president's powers over the Guard and require the Defense Department to analyze how prepared the country is for domestic emergencies." Bush savagely attacked Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius-- as he and Rove had done to Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco after Katrina-- in an attempt to shift blame from his policies.

Much bigger news than the Times story, however, is what came out on NBC-TV this morning from Cynthia Tucker, a respected columnist with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: a potential revolt from active duty generals sickened by what the Bush Regime has done to the U.S. military.

Look for a revolt from active-duty generals if Sept-ember rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into ‘08. We’ve already heard from retired generals. But my Atlanta Journal-Constitution colleague Jay Bookman has lots of sources among currently serving military officers who don’t want to fall by the wayside like the generals in Vietnam did, kept pushing a war that they knew was lost.