Let the generals do their job

I found this on Townhall.com a Conservative political website and it made me want to puke.

Another hypocrisy of the right and the Bush administration comes up again. This brings up the telling story of how the Bush Administration ousted General Eric Shinseki and Army Secratery Thomsa White. General Eric Ken Shinseki was the 34th Chief of Staff of the United States Army. He is the first Asian American in U.S. history to be a four-star general, and the first to lead one of the four U.S. military services. At the start of the Iraq war General Eric Shinseki strongly pushed for more troops on the ground and a different strategy then what Cheney and Rummy were gunning for. His is quoted as saying,"something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" would probably be required for post-war Iraq.

Instead of letting the general do his job, Rummy neutered General Shinseki by announcing the general’s replacement 15 months before Shinseki was set to retire. This move made Shinseki a lame duck for the remainder of his term. This sent a strong message to the lower ranks of the military: if you don't tow the line, you get cut.

Next, Army secretary Thomas White was fired in April 2003 after expressing his agreement with Shinseki's assessment of needed troop levels in Iraq. According to USA Today, "Rumsfeld was furious with White when the Army secretary agreed with Shinseki." In an interview after leaving the Pentagon, White said that senior Defense officials "are unwilling to come to grips" with the scale of the postwar U.S. obligation in Iraq, adding, "It's almost a question of people not wanting to 'fess up to the notion that we will be there a long time and they might have to set up a rotation and sustain it for the long term."

Now, the conservatives want us to let the generals do their job and voice their views?

It is this narrow hypocrisy that got us into this quagmire in the first place, when conservatives bristled at ANY criticism of how the Bush administration was handling the war. Any critic was immediately labeled 'un-patriotic', even 'traitors'. And yet, here we are 5 years later and still struggling in the quicksand.

4,000 and counting boys, 4,000 and counting.... tick tick…..