Someone shared a quote with me this morning that is appropriate here.

“I am convinced that the best service a retired general can perform is to turn in his tongue along with his suit, and to mothball his opinions.” —General Omar Bradley

Got a link where that is stated? Till then….

Yep, and I will back you up on that. In addition to the people who post here who’ve stated their military experience on the blog, there are any number who haven’t stated so in this blog but whose email addresses tell me they’re military.

US Army, 1st duty station Korea (Cmp Edwards, 9 miles from the DMZ), 2nd duty station Ft. Campbell, with a small stint in Panama for Jungle Training. After which I spent 6 years in the Army National Guard.

I was not a soldier, I was a Marine.

Symmantics. If you are a Marine, you were a soldier, whther you believe it or not. You would have served in one of the branches of the Armed Forces, and deployed where your commanders told you to.

sol·dier (sljr)
n.
1. One who serves in an army.
2. An enlisted person or a noncommissioned officer.
3. An active, loyal, or militant follower of an organization.

You are just using symmantics. Whether you want to believe it or not, you were a soldier as soon as you signed on the dotted line.

In it is:

Rumsfeld is arguably the most qualified and experienced secretary of defense in U.S. history. He exercises full command of the levers of Pentagon power. He understands the culture and controls the promotions of senior military leaders more closely than any of his predecessors.

Rumsfeld might have considered resigning in the wake of the devastating Abu Ghraib revelations. By so doing, he could have taken responsibility and sent the strongest possible signal concerning the total unacceptability of such conduct. Perhaps he did offer his resignation and the president declined to accept it. Regardless, it was very disappointing that none of the responsible generals resigned.

The decision to resign belongs exclusively to the individual. The retired generals had their chances to resign. It is reported that Maj. Gen. John Batiste may have done so. Others chose to follow orders. If they now want to offer an opinion on the conduct of the war, they are well-qualified to do so. They are also free to criticize the secretary’s leadership. I’ve offered critical opinions of my own. It is not their place, however, to call upon the president’s second-in-command to step down.

You say you’re a Marine officer. I have no way to tell, you could be. Or not. I will say this, you do not write or communicate in a way that sounds genuine. You write like someone with a liberal arts education and a very leftist viewpoint.

You claim to have been an officer, yet you dispute that general officers running around saying the things they are endanger the troops. Any damn thing that can negatively effect morale or support for the troops can endanger the troops. An officer would know that.

My son is a soldier, and he noted that not enough armored vehicles had been available at the start. But it’s also quite evident that military planners did not expect the need for it or that they failed to say they needed it. To blame it squarely on Rumsfeld is disingenuous at best, a flat lie at worst. An officer would know that.

The Marines are resisting the “extra armor”. It makes them a nice bullet-proff target since they can’t move worth a damn in it. An officer would listen to his troops, not pontificate.

So, uffda to you uffda.

Not a bad idea, unfortunately the AF is overly enamored of high tech toys and dislikes the A-10 because it’s not sexy enough, despite its effectiveness.

Actually, the Army should have them, but there’s this little doctrinal issue about the Army not being allowed to fly fixed wing combat aircraft (dumb, but it’s a turf war between the AF and Army, exactly the kind of thing Rumsfeld has been attacking and PO’ing the military brass by doing). The Marines would be an OK substitute, but they have their own attack aircraft and infrastructure. And often the Army fights where the Marines don’t, and in larger formations/numbers, and is usually in need of more close air support.

The A-10 should be upgraded with a decent FLIR pod and targeting system. It is, to this day, perhaps the finest ground attack aircraft ever made.

The Marine looks at the Airman and says “In the Marines, they taught us to wash our hands after going to the bathroom!”

The Airman replies “In the Air Force they taught us not to pee on our hands.”

I think leftists think each president and secretary of defense plans wars. They come into office and draw up all the scenarios. Thousands of them.

BTW, Why are they leftists? Because of their views and sources of information that help them form their views.

It’s not a BAD thing. I was once one. But I saw the light. And when I did it was over a year’s worth of visiting the library 3 times a week (during my 6 year enlistment) in 1991.

Uffda could do the same research I did.

Marines fight with what they have, not what they see in video games. If I were President, first thing I’d do is give the Marine Air Corps all the A-10s and then upgrade them. You think the A-10s were effective before, try them in the hands of a Marine close support pilot.

I guess Uffda is blaming all the guys at CENTCOM for the “incompetent” war planning. They are the guys who plan operations in the Middle East. So, it looks like Rummy dodged that bullet. He can’t be held responsible for incompetent war plans.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Charmaine Yoest The Donald is smoothly working the room. A glittering event in Your Nation’s Capital some time ago. “Go give Rummy a big smooch,” I tell Charmaine. “The Washington Post says he’s…