Op-ed of the week: At the Washington Post today, Robert H. Scales, retired Army major general and former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, essentially announces that the U.S. military is against a Syrian intervention and, while he’s at it, excoriates the Obama administration as a bunch of rank amateurs. Here’s what makes this striking: in our era, the active U.S. military high command has had a way of wielding “retired” former comrades to deliver their messages about how the civilian leadership is doing. So this undoubtedly isn’t just some old retired general’s “opinion.” When he writes about “a war the Pentagon doesn’t want,” guaranteed that it represents a lot more than him. It’s been clear that Joint Chiefs head Gen. Martin Dempsey hasn’t been happy about the administration’s plans for the military in Syria and in case you hadn’t noticed, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has been taking the low-profile route himself, though it’s barely been commented on. So now we’ve had an opinion poll no-vote by the American people, by much of the world, and by the U.S. military on the Obama administration’s interventionist plans. It’s been a striking spectacle and it’s just getting started! Tom “I feel confident that what follows represents the overwhelming opinion of serving professionals who have been intimate witnesses to the unfolding events that will lead the United States into its next war… They are embarrassed to be associated with the amateurism of the Obama administration’s attempts to craft a plan that makes strategic sense. None of the White House staff has any experience in war or understands it. So far, at least, this path to war violates every principle of war, including the element of surprise, achieving mass and having a clearly defined and obtainable objective… “They are outraged by the fact that what may happen is an act of war and a willingness to risk American lives to make up for a slip of the tongue about “red lines.” These acts would be for retribution and to restore the reputation of a president. Our serving professionals make the point that killing more Syrians won’t deter Iranian resolve to confront us. The Iranians have already gotten the message… “They are tired of wannabe soldiers who remain enamored of the lure of bloodless machine warfare.” washingtonpost/opinions/us-military-planners-dont-support-war-with-syria/2013/09/05/10a07114-15bb-11e3-be6e-dc6ae8a5b3a8_story.html?hpid=z3
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 14:59:53 +0000
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