Rudy Giuliani recently argued that U.S. military generals, by virtue of their service, necessarily have more credibility than practically anyone else. With that in mind, I wonder what Giuliani and others who share his approach to foreign policy have to say in response to the 20 generals who have defied tradition and rejected the Bush policy in Iraq.
The generals acted independently, coming in their own ways to the agonizing decision to defy military tradition and publicly criticize the Bush administration over its conduct of the war in Iraq.
What might be called The Revolt of the Generals has rarely happened in the nation’s history.
In op-ed pieces, interviews and TV ads, more than 20 retired U.S. generals have broken ranks with the culture of salute and keep it in the family. Instead, they are criticizing the commander in chief and other top civilian leaders who led the nation into what the generals believe is a misbegotten and tragic war.
It’s become fashionable in some circles to believe that patriotism demands uniformity. If you support the troops, the argument goes, then you support their mission. To even question the merit of a war while combat is ongoing is, to some, a sign of disloyalty.
These generals, thankfully, believe the opposite — they have a duty to speak out, and they will not shirk their responsibilities.
It’s worth noting that most of these men voted for Bush and endorsed Rumsfeld’s appointment. But they’ve been let down, and they feel the need to say so.
“The ethos is: Give your advice to those in a position to make changes, not the media,” said Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, now retired. “But this administration is immune to good advice.”
Eaton has two sons serving in Afghanistan and Iraq; his father, an Air Force pilot, was shot down and killed over Laos in 1969. He said his frustration began festering in 2003, when he was assigned to build the Iraqi army from scratch. His internal requests for more equipment and properly trained instructors went unheeded, he said.
While on active duty, Eaton did not criticize his civilian bosses — almost to a man, the generals agree active-duty officers have no business doing that. But he was candid in media interviews. Building an Iraqi army, he warned, would take years, and the effort might never succeed.
In 2004, he was replaced by Gen. David Petraeus — now the military commander in Iraq — and reassigned stateside. Sensing his once-promising Army career had foundered, Eaton retired Jan. 1, 2006.
Two months later, on the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion, Eaton criticized the administration in an opinion piece in The New York Times.
“I didn’t think my op-ed would be a big deal,” he said. “It certainly turned out to be otherwise.”
Eaton said he wrote the piece because he believed that three pillars of our democratic system had failed: The Bush administration ignored alarms raised by him and other commanders on the ground; the Republican-controlled Congress had failed to exercise oversight; and the media had abdicated its watchdog role.
“As we look back, it appears that without realizing it, we were reacting to a constitutional crisis,” Eaton said in a recent interview.
What’s unusual is that Eaton and his like-minded colleagues have stepped forward at all.
It is rare in U.S. history for even retired generals to step outside the chain of command and criticize the nation’s civilian leaders.
That was true even at the time of the unpopular Vietnam War. Andrew Bacevich, a professor of history and international relations at Boston University, said several generals who served in Vietnam now regret they didn’t go public when it might have done the nation some good.
“That has encouraged generals today to voice their unhappiness,” Bacevich said.
For all of our sakes, I’m glad they did.