Hack Is Hacked

While perusing James Wolcott, a daily read, I came across this article by Col. David Hackworth of Soldiers For The Truth. In it, he lays some blame for the situation in Iraq and has a word or two for a former mayor of the Big Apple. Go back and read Wolcott's lead-in, too.

I constantly hear the chant that we must support our troops. But what I see is more superficial lip service than serious consideration for our warriors’ welfare. If our top generals truly supported the troops, for example, they would have acknowledged that we were about to become engaged in a long-term insurgency campaign – and planned appropriately – long before the first tank shocked-and-awed its way into Iraq.

Any good infantry stud who’s studied insurgency warfare – especially Israel’s campaigns in Lebanon and Palestine, and ours in Vietnam and the Soviets in Afghanistan, where about 30 percent of all U.S. and Soviet casualties were the result of mines and booby traps – would have surmised from the get-go that our Iraqi insurgent opponent’s weapon of choice would be hit-and-run ambushes augmented by explosive devices. So it’s not a stretch to think it should have been obvious to our brass hats that Iraqi resisters would look at explosive devices as a cheap, easy method of inflicting casualties and disrupting operations, and use the same historically proven tactics that drove the Turks out of Iraq (then Mesopotamia), the USA out of Vietnam, the Soviets out of Afghanistan and the Israelis out of Lebanon.

During the final days of the presidential campaign, one of the thousands of neglected ammo dumps became an election flash point. In an attempt to take the heat off Bush, Rudy Giuliani actually went so far as to state that the heisted ammo was “the troops’ fault” and not the responsibility of the commander-in-chief.

But while Bush shouldn’t be held responsible for tactical snafus, his generals sure should – starting with Tommy Franks. It’s time that the C-in-C showed his support for the troops by nailing the culpable parties for all of the major military screw-ups in his pre-emptive war.

Hack's right. Bush is responsible for the strategic fuckup for being there in the first place, and the Brass is responsible for the tactical fuckups now that we're there. I'm sure these brave soldiers acquiesced en masse to protect their careers by not speaking out in the first place, but, had they done the right thing, which was to all resign on the spot, maybe 1100+ GI's and who-knows-how-many Iraqis would still be alive. Following the (p)resident off the cliff and taking our troops with them, or more properly, shoving the troops off the cliff at the (p)resident's whim while remaining safe themselves, was flat fuckin' wrong. I hope Bush, Cheney, Rummy, and a whole buncha others will eventually be made to pay for their sins and errors. It's a nice thought, but fat chance, white boy.

And an ambitious former mayor who dodged the Vietnam draft should be rapped on the head with the butt of an M-16 rifle for putting the politically expedient bad mouth on our brave soldiers.

Shit, a butt stroke with an M-16 is a love tap. They were never intended for close work with butt or bayonet. Let's put some real old-time grunt oomph! into the deal and use my favorite war-club, the M-14, and launch his head into the next county. Oh, I forgot, we don't want to hurt ol' Rudy, just express a little displeasure. Never mind.