Dear Mr. President ... Respectfully, Major General Paul D. Eaton

from a retired major general to an active duty general catastrophe...

May 1, 2007

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President,

Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.

Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.

The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.

The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.

As someone who served this nation for decades, I have the utmost respect for the office you hold. However, as a man of conscience, I could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now.

I urge you to reconsider your position, and work with Congress to pass a bill that achieves the goals laid out above.

Respectfully,

Major General Paul D. Eaton, USA, Retired

well, paul, you can "urge" him all you want, it won't make a goddam bit of difference... if advising, urging, suggesting, recommending, encouraging, begging, pleading, yelling, cursing, screaming, and/or pulling one's hair out had any effect on this miserable excuse for a human being, we would not have spent the past 6+ years watching our country sliding into a deep, dark, very smelly hole...

(thanks to kagro x at daily kos...)

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When active duty officers start speaking out, they're putting it ALL on the line

the most vocal officers so far have been retired, usually generals... active duty generals have been either very low profile or mute in their criticism... moreover, as with shinseki and others who let their divergence from the bushco orthodoxy be known, even if it was back-channel and very quiet, have been replaced by those willing to cheerlead for bushco... having an active duty, combat zone, field-grade officer below the rank of general speak out in a public forum is highly unusual and is a demonstration of how much punishment the military is taking in the endless nightmare that is iraq... this guy, yingling, by daring to openly criticize his superiors, is undoubtedly aware that he is putting a full stop to his career and may even face mandatory retirement... he's put it all on the line...

An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and misled Congress about the situation there.

"America's generals have repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq," charges Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, an Iraq veteran who is deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "The intellectual and moral failures . . . constitute a crisis in American generals."

Yingling's comments are especially striking because his unit's performance in securing the northwestern Iraqi city of Tall Afar was cited by President Bush in a March 2006 speech and provided the model for the new security plan underway in Baghdad.

He also holds a high profile for a lieutenant colonel: He attended the Army's elite School for Advanced Military Studies and has written for one of the Army's top professional journals, Military Review.

when this kind of thing starts to pop up, you know you're in a world of shit, but bushco, i am sure, will just shrug it off with the same arrogance that they're mocking impeachment efforts...

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