Why Does Lt. General Gregory Newbold Hate America?

Lt. General Gregory Newbold, retired director of operations at the Pentagon's military joint staff, sounds off on the Iraq war, the President's misguided foreign policy, and the failures of people (in the military and elsewhere) to speak out about this. Highly recommended read-

Time Magazine- Why Iraq Was a Mistake

A military insider sounds off against the war and the "zealots" who pushed it

From 2000 until October 2002, I was a Marine Corps lieutenant general and director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After 9/11, I was a witness and therefore a party to the actions that led us to the invasion of Iraq--an unnecessary war. Inside the military family, I made no secret of my view that the zealots' rationale for war made no sense. And I think I was outspoken enough to make those senior to me uncomfortable. But I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat--al-Qaeda. I retired from the military four months before the invasion, in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy. Until now, I have resisted speaking out in public. I've been silent long enough...

Back in the explosively jingoistic atmosphere of 2002/2003 (when the Dixie Chicks were boycotted, French fries were renamed, and liberals branded as traitors), Newbold would've been crucified by the right for saying these things. Just look at what happened to Paul O'Neill or Richard Clarke. Now, however, the right simply ignores these men instead of taking them on. The right knows the public is not buying their rhetoric and their particular brand of ideological snake oil any more. So some ignore the critics (anyone on Powerline or National Review mention Newbold's commentary... no?), some pretend they never really supported any of this (the "Whoa, have I told that I don't think Bush is really a conservative?!" crowd), and others create new boogeymen to distract us (Mexicans! Gays! Oh my!). But while they've been spinning like crazy lately, the right can't escape that they have been running this country for the last 5 years, starting these wars, and generally making a mess out of everything.

Kudos to Lt. General Newbold for finally speaking up ... if only he had done so in 2003.

Not that anyone in power would have listened listened to him anyway.




[PS- Democracy in the Arab World, a U.S. Goal, Falters]