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From the Barstow article:
Only when the invasion met unexpected resistance did General McCaffrey give a glimpse of his misgivings. “We’ve placed ourselves in a risky proposition, 400 miles into Iraq with no flank or rear area security,” he told Katie Couric on “Today.”
Mr. Rumsfeld struck back. He abruptly cut off General McCaffrey’s access to the Pentagon’s special briefings and conference calls.
General McCaffrey was stunned. “I’ve never heard his voice like that,” recalled one close associate who asked not to be identified. He added, “They showed him what life was like on the outside.”
Given how dependent his paycheck from Veritas and others is upon access to the Pentagon, this little anecdote should be damning. As soon as he deviated from Pentagon talking points, he was cut off. Well, we can't have that. Not if our livelihood depends on it:
Within days General McCaffrey began to backpedal, professing his “great respect” for Mr. Rumsfeld to Tim Russert. “Is this man O.K.?” the Fox News anchor Brit Hume asked, taking note of the about-face.
For months to come, as an insurgency took root, General McCaffrey defended the Bush administration. “I am 100 percent behind what the administration, what the president of the United States, is doing in Iraq,” he told Mr. Williams that June.
How can anyone look at this and deny the problem with a straight face? I don't give a crap about this man's private ethical dilemmas and business relationships. The main problem is that those dealings ended in inducing him to lie to the public about his misgivings about the war, including before the war began, when shaping public opinion was crucial to building support for it. Then, when challenged, he resorts to upholding the very credentials of trustworthiness he so egregiously abused for profit?? I hate to sit here and re-state the case, but the more I read, the more I am outraged.
