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Mon. May 10, 2004

A Big Mug of STFU

Over the weekend, Dick Cheney weighed in on the criticism of Donald Rumsfeld: “People ought to get off his case and let him do his job.”

Read that again. The Vice President would like for you to shut up and let Rummy quietly go back to doing his job. I would suggest, as politely as I can under the circumstances, that Vice President Cheney is the one who needs to shut the f*ck up, and stop trying to chill free speech in this country on a strategically important topic. It is appallingly transparent, and the type of remark you expect in an autocracy, not a democracy. Wake Up, Mr. Vice President, you’re not in the bunker anymore. This is America.

If you think what I just said is offensive, then take it from a Republican Senator: “Dick Cheney’s efforts to silence criticism angered even some who had not been calling for Mr Rumsfeld’s head. Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican member of the Senate armed services committee, said the vice-president’s comments were inappropriate. ‘Nobody is on [Mr Rumsfeld’s] back,’ he said. ‘We have an independent duty to look at this.’”

If that’s not enough for you, then take it from a chorus of voices in the Pentagon: “Several of those interviewed said a profound anger is building within the Army at Rumsfeld and those around him. A senior general at the Pentagon said he believes the United States is already on the road to defeat.”

Not tactical defeat. There is no doubt we can win every pitched battle in Iraq. But tactical victory does not bring you strategic victory, just as using less than 200,000 troops to topple Saddam’s regime (tactical victory) does not give you control of a stable Iraq (strategic victory). Which some people have been saying for a year now.

The article makes it clear that it’s not just a couple of random voices that Cheney would like to shut up. There’s apparently a lot of senior officers now voicing these concerns.

“Like a lot of senior Army guys, I’m quite angry” with Rumsfeld and the rest of the Bush administration, the young general said. He listed two reasons. “One is, I think they are going to break the Army.” But what really incites him, he said, is, “I don’t think they care.”

Jeff Smith, a former general counsel of the CIA who has close ties to many senior officers, said, “Some of my friends in the military are exceedingly angry.”

Retired Army Col. Robert Killebrew, a frequent Pentagon consultant, said, “The people in the military are mad as hell.”

A Special Forces officer aimed higher, saying that “Rumsfeld needs to go, as does Wolfowitz.”

Asked about such antagonism, Wolfowitz said, “I wish they’d have the – whatever it takes – to come tell me to my face.”

Washington Post: “Dissension Grows In Senior Ranks On War Strategy”

Yes, as former Gen. Shinseki and former Secretary of the Army Thomas White can tell you, the civilian command of the Defense Department welcomes dissent. Because it makes it easier to target the disloyal and get them out of the way.

They’ve created an environment of “speak up, and be gone.” Cheney’s comment exemplifies that. But I don’t think anybody’s going to be shutting up this time, guys.

Maybe this time, you should try it on for size.