Letters to the Editor
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So here's the question
With officers such as this at the helm of our military, is it any wonder we're failing in Iraq?
Lots of wingnuts keep going on about how we should "take the gloves off" (nuke them? torture more detainees? kill more civilians? they don't say) but I've finally decided that this is simply nutspeak for "we lost" - a tacit admission of the failure of the US Military to win the war.
It seems to me that all Bush has left us in charge of our military are the political hacks and the angry incompetents - and these people certainly aren't going to lead us to victory.
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still don't agree
1st off, I'd like to point out that "politicization" takes me about three attempts to type correctly.
now...re: this military politicization that folks are howling about. the military itself, like it or not and quite naturally, in my opinion, is an entity that typically aligns itself with the right of the political spectrum. am i wrong about this? it seems self-evident. if this is true, then this story is still not very important news to me. Boylan's political views are predictable. His leaking information to right-leaning bloggers & leaving those of us not politically aligned with the right out in the cold? This is predictable, too. It should be illegal, but how do you catch them doing it? Press leaks are like ninjas - they quickly and quietly do their damage and leave little or no trace. I am as frustrated by them as the next guy or gal, but what do you do to stop them? His bizarre, infantile behavior isn't so predictable, but i still maintain that it isn't much of a story and that it will not resonate beyond Boylan's possible personal career demise. If it could be proven that was acting on Petraeus' instructions - well now, THAT'S a story. But who honestly thinks that's going to happen? Not me...
I have never assumed that the military was above the political fray - I've always seen the military as the implementation tool of political goals.
So scream on about the politicization of the military, but you might want to stop to catch your breath now and again - it's here to stay.
BTW, just so you have some context re: me...I'm a dedicated Salon reader & i lean in the same direction as a lot of the readership here, with a few notable exceptions - like this.
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Yet another dishonest neocon hack
Boylan shows the cardinal characteristics of other neocons. He can’t distinguish partisan bias from actual principles. He’s arrogant and block-headed, refusing to acknowledge or respond to serious and valid points that he doesn’t agree with. He’s his own worst enemy, apparently lacking the self restraint to realize that he’s digging himself into a hole until it’s too late. Then, after he’s gotten himself in trouble through his carelessness and lack of discipline, he tries to lie his way out. It’s a classic neocon M.O. all the way.
Why does this case matter? Because it’s highly improper for the chief spokesman of our chief commander in Iraq to be nothing but a loose-cannon propagandist for the GOP. The GOP, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney do not own our military. The American people deserve to get straight and honest answers from their men in the field. We already know we can’t trust the Bush administration itself. If we also can’t get honest information directly from the military then we’re really screwed.
So, Greenwald and Salon: good work. Keep the screws to Boylan and let the American people see the extent to which the Bush administration has politicized practically every function of our government that they had access to. Let them see yet another example of this ongoing travesty. We have as the highest spokesman of our Iraqi military operation an amateurish, undisciplined political hack, to go along with “Brownie,” "Wolfie," “Gonzo,” “Rummy” and all the other hacks who’ve so disgraced this country over the past seven years.
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merlot and email don't mix
In Slaughterhouse Five Kurt Vonnegut describes his disease where late at night he gets drunk and telephones old friends. He inappropriately tries to reconnect with people he hasn't seen or heard from in too long. Perhaps the good Colonel suffers from a similar affliction, instead using email and minus the sentimentality.
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@ tomrichford..ok, but..
Tom wrote, in part:
to "why we care" -- it astonishes me that people don't have the faintest idea why *the military should be completely apolitical*. For God's sake, have none of you ever opened a history book, or looked at a newspaper over the last ten years? Do you want a "military government" for the United States?
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I have to wonder sometimes if the deterioration of public education in this country, coupled with the big-corporate ownership of media, have together turned our populace into a bunch of imbeciles. Ignorant imbeciles. That's one question.
Has it ever occured to anyone here that if every, single grown adult in the united states had been through competent psychoanalysis (not necessarily freudian, just competent), they'd NEVER fall for the shit the right-wing's been shoveling for the past 30 years? The crap these guys have been throwing around is the sort of thing only a pre-freudian/jungian-choose-your-ian, immature, childish, almost-totally-unaware kind of person would buy.
The GOP's crap is kind of thing only emotional children would buy. Says a lot, none of it good, about our current voting population. The entire voting block of the GOP must be composed of seriously disturbed, profoundly unevolved human beings. I dunno about you, but that's bothered me for a long time.
Now, on to Boylan. If he's such a hack, why would he post e-mails and then chicken out after they get published? If he really believes all that crap he's throwing around, wouldn't he be GLAD they were published?
This is where I get a little confused. Does he believe his own shit, or doesn't he? Why would he be concerned that his crap would get published? He apparently thinks it's great crap.
Anyone who would post posts like that to *reporters*--for christ's sweet sake--and not expect them to get published is too stupid to even be IN the military, let alone in such an important position.
Sweet Jesus. The whole thing is just a fucking train-wreck, like every other thing GW Bush and his people have touched. How long before they light up a nuke on someone? Just for the hell of it, you know?