Reid labels military leader ‘incompetent’
This is wrong of lawmakers and the President to keep blaming the military and CIA for their own in competency ! The truth is lawmakers and the President ignored the advice of the CIA, military experts and intelligence when they got us into Iraq. We need leadership to take responsibility and quite blaming the people that protect us!
Politico-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “incompetent” during an interview Tuesday with a group of liberal bloggers, a comment that was never reported.
Reid made similar disparaging remarks about Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said several sources familiar with the interview.
This is but the latest example of how Reid, under pressure from liberal activists to do more to stop the war, is going on the attack against President Bush and his military leaders in anticipation of a September showdown to end U.S. involvement in Iraq, according to Democratic senators and aides
Well, I would make a comment if the article was sourced but it’s not. Sounds more like rumors to me.
Reid is incompetent. What is it with dems like Reid, Pelosi and peanut boy acting as if they have credibility to criticize anybody?
You’re kidding right? LOL! Conservative and Bush have become to have the same meaning as incompetent. Of course, I know it’s “traitorous” to mention that the emperor has no clothes! Too bad for the GOP that they are now calling 2/3 or more of the American public “traitors”.
Yeah, it’s a pretty stupid comment, if he said it. I’m not convinced this isn’t just some hit piece against Reid. If anything, it’s more likely he called the conduct of the war incompetent or something like that. We’ll see.
IT IS NOT A STUPID COMMENT!
Peter Pace was as ineffective in his capacity as any other general in US history. I’m no fan of Harry Reid, but on this one he’s right.
Let’s not get childish and lump his accurate statement into some cliche like, “I’m tired of everyone blaming the military and CIA…” – - – GROW UP! He was an important player in all of this, and the notion that he shouldn’t be held accountable or criticized for his performance is insane.
The rank and file soldiers serving time in military prisons weren’t given a pass, right? Why should the most comfortable and powerfull officer of them all get a pass?
You know…on Memorial Day Pace was on TV doing an interview, and he undershot the number of US military personell killed in Iraq so far by over 500.
Speaking of STUPID Reid comments, here’s another published in the NY Sun:
“This week we will vote on cloture and final passage of a comprehensive bill that will strengthen border security, bring the 12 million undocumented Americans out of the shadows, and keep our economy strong.”
‘undocumented Americans’ – come on caroline, defend this one.
I am no fan of generals, Lord knows, I served with a good number of them over 30 years of military service, particularly after 1995. A good number of them, but not all, are incompetent political hacks; unfortunately that is what the system breeds. I saw it when no one resigned to protest Rumsfeld’s disaster in the making in Iraq. The only one to give him ground truth, Army Chief of Staff Shinseki, was cashiered like some lowly PFC. You get the rare bird who is the firebreather who is the bull in the Pentagon china shop. But, if Reid’s comments are true, I don’t see where this dried up, miserable, moronic political hack from Nevada gets off on his comments. Reid is a disaster and should be put back in his cage. He has no standing to criticize any serving member of the military, general or not.
For the record, I am no Democrat, and I am damned sure no Republican, either.
Mars
Very good point!
bb,
LOL. That was an obvious screw up. I’ll let you off the hook though. I know conservatives and republicans don’t recognize screw ups hence Bush.
Al Swearengen: A comment can be both true and stupid. If he made the comment, he and the cause did not benefit from it.
I suppose so. But this is really a moment when a Democrat should stick to their guns and keep saying it over and over again.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff is supposed to provide the most realistic assessment of things that the military can provide, which means that if and when a civilian like the Secretary of Defense is pressuring them to say something, their DUTY is to remain focused on the role they are there to provide.
Shinsecki was ousted, but that didn’t mean that what he did was wrong all of a sudden. He did his job. What should have happened was, Rumsfeld having to kick out so many of them one after another that finally he lost the ability to impose his will upon them. Pace standing side by side with Rumsfeld at press conferences, and how their words were entwined…that’s not how it’s supposed to happen.
So Pace failed to do his job, and Harry Reid should just keep coming with it. Get the punditry out there trying to argue that Pace’s job as something other than what I described it as. Because they’ll be 100% wrong, and if the GOP takes the bait and gets out too far defending Pace…well, they’ll be backing a loser, but hey, they backed Gonzalez the other day…
Truth time…can’t back down from Republicans and the noise machine anymore. What’s right is right.
Al, fundamentally you are correct, but we have to get away from this Democrat/Republican childish BS game. We as AMERICANS must INSIST, through our representatives (Democrat AND Republican) that our generals in positions of high authority give ground truth to the executive without fear of repercussions. PERIOD. I communicate regularly with my representative,and give her hell on certain issues. I get letters back, so I know she reads what I send, or at least hears about it. Thankfully her positions on a number of issues are in favor of the common citizen, and I give her ample praise for it. Read my post above on generals. The sad thing is that once you pin on the stars, you HAVE to be political, IF you want to advance in rank. I committed a major faux pas in the Marine Corps as a senior field grade officer, intentionally to avoid selection to brigadier general. I found the whole business distasteful, and considered that in becoming a general, I would end up failing the thousands of Marines who served with me and under my command over 30 years. Perhaps that is not a good way to look at things, but after a few tours in the Puzzle Palace (i.e. the Pentagon), I got a bad taste in my mouth.
“I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then question the manner in which I provide it.” — Col. Nathan R. Jessup, USMC, “A Few Good Men” (1992)