How Bush Uses His Generals. Reminiscent of the final days of the Third Reich.

[Guest Harry Hope]

From The Washington Post, 7/16/07:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2007/07/16/BL2007071600891.html

 

How Bush Uses His Generals

 

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com

 

President Bush says that he should be trusted on military issues

because he listens to his commanders.

 

But he has a tendency to celebrate his generals when they're providing

him political cover -- then stick a knife in their backs when they're

no longer of any use to him.

 

Last week, Bush rejected any blame for the chaos that ensued in Iraq

after the March 2003 invasion.

 

So whose fault was it?

 

Bush pointed the finger at Gen. Tommy Franks, the Central Command

chief at the time.

 

"My primary question to General Franks was, do you have what it takes

to succeed? And do you have what it takes to succeed after you succeed

in removing Saddam Hussein? And his answer was, yes," Bush said.

 

That's the same Tommy Franks to whom Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom

in 2004.

 

And when virtually all of Bush military line of command, including the

entire Joint Chiefs of Staff, opposed his "surge" proposal late last

year, Bush responded not by listening, but by removing the top two

commanders responsible for Iraq and replacing them with more amenable

leaders, including Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus.

 

Petraeus, as it happens, wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post just

five weeks before the 2004 election describing what he called "reasons

for optimism" in Iraq.

 

Now Petraeus is Bush's "main man."

 

Maybe he should be watching his back.

 

_________________________________________________

 

From deep inside the Bush bunker.

 

Harry