In my previous post, I quoted retired four star Marine Jack Sheehan.
In all fairness to the administration, it is possible to posit that Sheehan doesn’t really think what he has publicly stated. Perhaps he is reluctant to return to public life but his lifetime of public service (35 years in uniform) makes it hard for him to do so. So perhaps he was grasping a straws to justify remaining in public life. After all, being an executive at Bechtel probably pays more than the civil service.
Balanced against this “I don’t want to admit that it is all about the Benjamins” theory is the very fact of that service. He has been a dedicated soldier. Once a marine, always a marine. Semper Fi and all that. I suspect that my father would shoulder an M-1 and head to Fallujah if he thought a 71 year old Korean War infantryman could turn the tide.
Or perhaps he smells a scapegoat position being created. That seems to be a running theme with liberal commentators over at the Washington Post. If Bush understands that the war is lost* and is simply keeping the war going for political reasons, appointing a war czar might provide some cover when the inevitable happens, one can understand all three officers’ relucatance to sign on. Of course, that also is concurrent with the hypothesis that the officers don’t think the war is winnable.
* I don’t believe this. Even though I believe that many of Bush’s decisions have been unwise, I don’t think that he is a dark sith lord. Heck, my buddy the Maximum Leader usually has his head firmly planted in his posterior, but that doesn’t make him evil. He’s a nice guy. Unfortunatelty, in what passes for public debate today, it is not enough to question a person’s ideas. You have to impugn his character. I’ve yet to see any evidence that Bush and Cheney are secretly the pawns of Haliburton. I wish the left could just argue the merits of positions rather than scream “Bushitler!”
Heck, if wishes are being granted, I want a pony too.
And maybe Halle Berry, Evangeline Lilly, and Alyssa Milano. I’m not greedy.
