Col. David Hackworth: Deja vu all over again

[lebkuchen]

http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=Hacks%20Target%20Homepage.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=30&rnd=966.9912316718816

While on vacation in Crawford, Tex., Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush must have been drinking from the same well as Lyndon B. Johnson when LBJ got American boots stuck in Southeast Asia’s unforgiving swamps.

<snip>


Bush’s assertion that our battered, overstretched combat troops in Iraq would “never retreat” was a major déjà vu moment. And the similarities don’t stop there. Both presidents got into deep doo-doo because they listened to their arrogant defense secretaries and an all-knowing coterie of civilian and uniformed go-along types running the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff rather than some smart, straight-shooting field generals.


<snip>


Because of a massively flawed policy, a proven miscalculation for which Congress should demand accountability, America is in big trouble in Iraq. Heads should roll – and the necks of Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Myers and Pace should be first on the chopping block.

[FlashHarry]

1. Boy, he just HATES Rumsfeld.

I remember Hackworth calling Rummy an 'arrogant asshole' not too long ago.

[Zuni]

3. He doesn't trust the Pentagon brass

especially those that never served in combat.

Hackworth is the most decorated living American soldier, who served in WWII, korea and Vietnam. I'll take him over chickenhawk Rumsfeld anyday.

[gratuitous]

2. "Congress should demand accountability"?

Good one, Colonel! Had me laughing my fool head off. Wait, you were serious, weren't you?

[papau]

4. Britians' Prof Rogers and the Germam PM agree with Col.Hackworth

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=103&topic_id=10580

http://www.oxfordresearchgroup.org.uk/publications/briefings/winningorlosing.htm


Professor Paul Rogers, September 2003 "The 'War on Terrorism': Winning or Losing?" says that Two years on, we are losing the 'War on Terror' -Since 9/11, over 350 have been killed in attacks linked to al Qaida, with close to 1,000 injured - Afghanistan remains deeply unstable -occupying troops in Iraq represent '140,000 targets' and lists out in detail the attacks, both thwarted and successful, in the past two years. He says the al-Qaida network has actually been more active than before 9/11 and is collectively showing a capability that exceeds that existing before the 9/11 attacks." - that Al Qaida has grown in strength over the last two years. And that Afghanistan is a disaster because the Military victory over the Taliban was achieved partly by "the provision of large quantities of armaments to Northern Alliance forces, with these armaments subsequently cascading through warlord militias in post-war Afghanistan, strengthening the power of individual warlords and diminishing that of the putative government of Hamid Karzai."


He then suggest Jeff Sach's - and Dennis K's - solution of just get out of Iraq - whatever bad this results in will be less bad than our getting out latter - see VietNam

and suggests:
development aid to Afghanistan
UN to take a central role in Iraq
more vigorous policies to deliver improved development assistance, debt relief and trade reform to narrow the global socio-economic divide
Take the lead in setting a pro-development agenda at the EU, G8 and appropriate UN bodies
View has to encompass the possible connections between terrorism, poverty and exclusion. The growing global socio-economic divide is leading directly to the growth of radical social movements, some of which are prepared to use violence."
"Iraqis must be enabled to develop a democratic and independent state that may well choose to distance itself from Washington."
"It should be possible to involve a wider range of states in peacekeeping, including Arab states… such progress would not be readily achieved without a much clearer and more consistent support for the Israeli/Palestinian peace process."

"It is self-deluding to believe that we can make ourselves more secure through solely military means. Security will unavoidably mean sharing out the world's resources more fairly. Groups linked to al Qaida draw support from local discontent over economic, political or social injustice - symbolised, for many, on a global scale, by the US determination to keep control of key resources - chiefly, oil."

Professor Paul Rogers'latest book is 'Losing Control: Global Security in the 21st Century' (Pluto 2000, 2nd Edition 2002).
Contact: James Kemp, Oxford Research Group - 01865 242 819; [e-mail]" target="_blank">[e-mail]