Boo Radley
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2009
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- Liberal
Well I didn't say he wasn't a foolish President. What else would you call man who relied upon the guidance of fools like Rumsfeld and Cheney. Rumsfeld was hated by the military as much as he hated them and Cheney's worldly perspective relied upon a Cold War with Soviets.
Actually, Cheney and Rumsfeld are pretty smart. They knew exactly what they were doing. They're goals just may not have been what yours might have been.
This is because the military constantly finds itself between a rock and a hard place and this has become more frequent since the end of the Cold War. The military is frequently at odds with the White House and always at odds with the media. Consider that it was the military that was trying to warn the White House of an impending radical problem in the Middle East throughout the 90s when talking about religion was a huge no-no in our intel circuits. Consider that it was the military that demanded more numbers in order to properly invade Iraq so as to deal with the inevitable tribal fallout. Consider that the military has manuals on interrogation and prisoner control that do not call for waterboarding. Consider how quickly Iraq turned around once Rumsfeld (a civilian) was taken out of the game and Patreaus (a military general) was put in the lead. The Pentagon had been at odds with Rumsfeld since before 2003. The hatred went both ways. The frustration of the military after the last two decades of being ignored by Washington suits who declare to know better could be seen from Mcchrystal's comments about the White House in 2010.
But the military has another problem. A U.S. Army problem. The lack of institutional discipline can be seen from Koran burnings, mass murder, Abu-Ghraib, and WikiLeaks reporting. The very few "leaks" came from idiots merely looking for YouTube fame. Actual whistleblowing came from Generals who were either retired or on their way to retirement and had a duty to deal with the base problem of abuses which were stemming from the CIA and looked towards the military to go against code. You see, a Sergeant or a Captain will be Court Martialed. A civilian CIA agent will merely get re-assigned.
And do you think these intel leaks coming from Washington make the military happy? And what is the media's role once again? I tell ya, sometimes it feels like the military is doing it's best to work loyally for children who are doing their best to make it harder. This is why the military has a long history of shoving away the media and divisions between White House and Pentagon.
It's also because the military believes it (torture) is not only wrong, but ineffective. I do not fault the military, being a hammer, for seeing solutions in the context of using a hammer. Often what the military thinks is their mission is not what the civilian leadership thinks is their mission. It is not unusual for the two to see things differently. What I fault Bush most for is misusing the military for a purpose that was neither wise nor beneficial to the US. He spent US lives for no valid reason.
Not enough to merit "Hope" and "Change" as a slogan. He was elected because of this. And now that we see barely any change, Liberals look the other way and pretend that gays in the military was all that really ever mattered.
Never saw a slogan that matched the performance. I think that is the nature of political slogans. But, we saw the change I expected, not the change I hoped for. We discussed this before the election, and the radical right missed what was being said as much as the radical left. We wanted torture called what it was. We wanted the focus back in Afghanistan. We wanted Iraq done. We wanted Gitmo closed (because of the torture and violations of rule of law). Most of that was done.
Now I wanted more attention to the home front. I wanted healthcare reformed tackled. I wanted both a reduction in spending and increases in taxes, and wanted that in order to get a handle on the deficit (something conservatives/ republicans largely ignored during 8 years of Bush).
I realized the president isn't king. I knew congress would matter. I voted form Grassely here in Iowa. He let me down badly. I wanted a divided government that knew it had to work together. Both parties let me down. But it isn't like I didn't understand this could happen.