Anything to get Rumsfeld

Posted By Blackfive

I had a reunion with some old Army buddies this weekend. Most of us were Field Grade Officers and Senior Warrants. Last night over dinner after the Sox Game, I was crying (because I was laughing so hard) at some of the things we had done together as juinior soldiers.

"The Buddha" displayed the ultimate wisdom of the night by declaring, "I can't believe they paid us to blow @#$& up, party at the Officers Club and be Soldiers."

We talked a lot about the War on Terror and upcoming problems with retention and re-enlistments. Despite what the administration is claiming, no one thought that things were looking as good as described.

We also agreed that, while Rumsfeld has made a lot of mistakes, he is one of the best Secretaries of Defense that we had seen in a long time. We also thought that the Democrats and left-wing media would do anything to get rid of him - including the latest story by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Hersh is trying to link the prisoner abuse scandal with a secret team of intelligence agents who are rooting out Al Qaeda. The opponents ot the Bush Administration smell blood...

Fewer than two hundred operatives and officials, including Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were “completely read into the program,” the former intelligence official said. The goal was to keep the operation protected. “We’re not going to read more people than necessary into our heart of darkness,” he said. “The rules are ‘Grab whom you must. Do what you want.’”

I should state that two of us spent most of our careers in Military Intelligence. One was tactical and I was mostly strategic. We agreed that this was one of the most hilarious things that we had heard in a long time.

<< Sarcasm >>
1. Only two hundred people were in the know on this plan. If you include Operators (the ones on the front lines) and their controllers, this would mean that maybe 20 people in the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and DIA knew about the operations (including the SecDef). Right!

2. Hey, we're only going to tell 200 people in the direct chain of command and in Delta Force, but we'll also include a clerk and a bunch of lower enlisted soldiers that were disciplined for prisoner abuses at other camps. That's the hallmark of success right there.
<< /Sarcasm >>

I have been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. But I have to say that this is one of the most ridiculous claims that I have ever heard.

We might be using harsh interrogation techniques on Al Qaeda (we should), but to lamely link that with the Abu Ghraib prison and a few low level MPs and clerks is stretching the limits of sanity.

These people were bad soldiers who had a history of abusing prisoners. They had bad morale, bad leadership, no training, etc...

Update: CNN "Pentagon: Hersh report 'journalist malpractice'"

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Anything to get Rumsfeld

I had a reunion with some old Army buddies this weekend. Most of us were Field Grade Officers and Senior Warrants. Last night over dinner after the Sox Game, I was crying (because I was laughing so hard) at some of the things we had done together as juinior soldiers.

"The Buddha" displayed the ultimate wisdom of the night by declaring, "I can't believe they paid us to blow @#$& up, party at the Officers Club and be Soldiers."

We talked a lot about the War on Terror and upcoming problems with retention and re-enlistments. Despite what the administration is claiming, no one thought that things were looking as good as described.

We also agreed that, while Rumsfeld has made a lot of mistakes, he is one of the best Secretaries of Defense that we had seen in a long time. We also thought that the Democrats and left-wing media would do anything to get rid of him - including the latest story by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker. Hersh is trying to link the prisoner abuse scandal with a secret team of intelligence agents who are rooting out Al Qaeda. The opponents ot the Bush Administration smell blood...

Fewer than two hundred operatives and officials, including Rumsfeld and General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were “completely read into the program,” the former intelligence official said. The goal was to keep the operation protected. “We’re not going to read more people than necessary into our heart of darkness,” he said. “The rules are ‘Grab whom you must. Do what you want.’”

I should state that two of us spent most of our careers in Military Intelligence. One was tactical and I was mostly strategic. We agreed that this was one of the most hilarious things that we had heard in a long time.

<< Sarcasm >>
1. Only two hundred people were in the know on this plan. If you include Operators (the ones on the front lines) and their controllers, this would mean that maybe 20 people in the Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and DIA knew about the operations (including the SecDef). Right!

2. Hey, we're only going to tell 200 people in the direct chain of command and in Delta Force, but we'll also include a clerk and a bunch of lower enlisted soldiers that were disciplined for prisoner abuses at other camps. That's the hallmark of success right there.
<< /Sarcasm >>

I have been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. But I have to say that this is one of the most ridiculous claims that I have ever heard.

We might be using harsh interrogation techniques on Al Qaeda (we should), but to lamely link that with the Abu Ghraib prison and a few low level MPs and clerks is stretching the limits of sanity.

These people were bad soldiers who had a history of abusing prisoners. They had bad morale, bad leadership, no training, etc...

Update: CNN "Pentagon: Hersh report 'journalist malpractice'"

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