Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Republicans Betray Our Military: It is a National Disgrace and a Peril to America

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL

Yesterday, September 26, the mainstream media was too busy covering the tragically bizarre behavior of a president unhinged from reality to focus on the facts. Bush basically threw a tantrum, claiming that a National Intelligence Estimate by his 16 top intelligence agencies didn’t say what it said.

Then Bush said he would prove that he was right and that he would allow the declassification of selected parts of the NIE finding to prove his point of view was correct.

But even though the report (completed in April, but just disclosed in the New York Times on Sunday) was vetted by the Bush propagandists and only a White House version of an executive summary was released, the report still found that the war in Iraq has led to an increase in terrorists, been a rallying point for jihad, and was increasing the threat of terrorism to the U.S.

In short, the report found that Bush’s war in Iraq has spent billions of dollars and lost tens of thousands of U.S. and Iraqi lives to INCREASE the number of terrorists and the terrorist threat to our country.

This is incompetence, treason, malfeasance and dereliction of duty all rolled into one. It is beyond belief.

And even more shocking is that "Rep. Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Tuesday called on the White House to release a second, previously publicly unknown, national intelligence document that focuses solely on Iraq. Harman insisted there is a draft NIE that has not been revealed to the public. ‘I have learned there is an NIE on Iraq, specifically on Iraq, that has been left in draft form at the National Intelligence Council,’ the California congresswoman said at a news conference."

Yet, the mainstream press continues to treat Bush as credible – and continues to let Rove write a script about "the war on terrorism" that has nothing to do with reality. It as if the billions of dollars spent on "news coverage" by the corporate media is really spent on an ongoing update from the "Wizard of Oz."

What the mainstream media doesn’t report in any sort of front page coverage is that the military, except for the current Bush loyalists at the top, is in virtually open revolt against the Rumsfeld/Bush/Cheney/Rice leadership.

As Randi Rhodes has repeatedly noted on her Air America program, five former joint chiefs of staff – that’s five – have publicly opposed Bush’s attempt to legalize torture. That’s a lot of brass against a Bush "war" team, none of whom have ever had combat experience.

Moreover, top retired military personnel have been speaking out on how Rumsfeld, in particular, ignored, demeaned and threatened combat-experienced Pentagon brass who tried to prepare for the Iraq War and for a successful outcome. He threatened to fire anyone who came to him with a post-war plan for Iraq.

Combat tested and honored career officers have retired early because they could not stomach the contempt of Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration for the expertise of the armed forces – and for how Rumsfeld’s hubris in particular has resulted in the needless deaths of our soldiers.

These are the near-top and upper level career military men and women that John Murtha knows and is speaking on behalf of.

But many of them are speaking for themselves.

Since the White House and the Republicans in Congress won’t listen to any reasonable alternatives to the "divinely" driven "war" run by the White House, the Democrats finally got permission on Monday, September 25, to use a Senate hearing room to offer former military brass a chance to air their blistering criticisms of the Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney conduct of the Iraq war.

These were military men – all of whom described themselves as Republican – and for their honesty, Trent Lott threatened "retribution" if the Democrats (and one courageous Republican Congressman) ever used the Senate again to allow former generals to discuss the Iraq War. That’s the contempt that Trent Lott, the White House, and the Republican Party hold for our military.

We were particularly moved by the testimony of Major General John Batiste. Batiste was the former commander of the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq.

Batiste began his testimony with these words: "My name is John Batiste. I left the military on principle on November 1, 2005, after more than 31 years of service. I walked away from promotion and a promising future serving our country. I hung up my uniform because I came to the gut-wrenching realization that I could do more good for my soldiers and their families out of uniform. I am a West Point graduate, the son and son-in-law of veteran career soldiers, a two-time combat veteran with extensive service in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Iraq, and a life-long Republican. Bottom line, our nation is in peril, our Department of Defense’s leadership is extraordinarily bad, and our Congress is only today, more than five years into this war, beginning to exercise its oversight responsibilities."

It is national disgrace, dishonor, and disservice to our military that this man had to leave the armed forces because of the arrogance and incompetence of the Bush Administration.

Our nation is indeed in peril when a bunch of cardboard cowboys receive major media coverage, despite blunder after blunder that harms our national security, while our military heroes – who have the knowledge to prevail – are forced from the armed services because they dare to offer up their expertise.

In Part II of this editorial, we will reprint the entire testimony of Major General Batiste, as spoken in a Senate Hearing Room on Monday, September 25.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL