Stop the Second-Guessing
That's the message in this piece from the always-excellent Victor Davis Hanson.
What we need, then, are not more self-appointed ethicists, but far more humility and recognition that in this war nothing is easy. Choices have been made, and remain to be made, between the not very good and the very, very bad. Most importantly, so far, none of our mistakes has been unprecedented, fatal to our cause, or impossible to correct.
So let us have far less self-serving second-guessing, and far more national confidence that we are winning — and that radical Islamists and their fascist supporters in the Middle East are soon going to lament the day that they ever began this war.
It's particularly disheartening to read about generals and the like who seem ready with the criticism of what has been done, but seem to offer little in the way of guidance about what should be done -- people like Anthony Zinni, former head of US Central Command. Interestingly, yesterday in an interview (transcript at Radioblogger), Hugh Hewitt interviewed General Thomas McInerney, the retired assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, formerly director of the Defense Performance Review, and the founder of Government Reform Through Technology, GRTT. General McInerney had this to say:
HH: General, what do you make of the fact that in recent days, Major General John Batiste, and retired Marine Corps General Greg Newbold, Army Major General Paul Eaton, Marine Corps General Zinni have all spoken out against the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and portions of the war. Are you surprised by this?
TM: Well, I don't know. I haven't heard Batiste. I've heard Zinni's comments, or read Zinni's comments. I've read Greg Newbold. I'm on a board with Greg. I'm somewhat surprised, but when I read their comments, I'm embarrassed for them. For instance, Zinni wants stability in the region. He says it's not an ideology we're fighting. Hugh, we are fighting an ideology as bad as Communism, Nazism and Facism. It's Islamic extremism. That is our problem there. If General Tony Zinni doesn't understand that, who I used to have great respect for, and he was the commander of Central Command, I think we're in deep trouble.
One more point: There's been a lot of criticism of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Maybe some of it is justified; a lot of it isn't. One thing to keep in mind, however -- and which the MSM rarely mentions -- is the fact that anyone who (like Secretary Rumsfeld) comes in and tries to reform a bureaucracy (and yes, the Pentagon is a bureaucracy) is going to make enemies within that bureaucracy. The trick is separating justified criticism from score-settling.
What we need, then, are not more self-appointed ethicists, but far more humility and recognition that in this war nothing is easy. Choices have been made, and remain to be made, between the not very good and the very, very bad. Most importantly, so far, none of our mistakes has been unprecedented, fatal to our cause, or impossible to correct.
So let us have far less self-serving second-guessing, and far more national confidence that we are winning — and that radical Islamists and their fascist supporters in the Middle East are soon going to lament the day that they ever began this war.
It's particularly disheartening to read about generals and the like who seem ready with the criticism of what has been done, but seem to offer little in the way of guidance about what should be done -- people like Anthony Zinni, former head of US Central Command. Interestingly, yesterday in an interview (transcript at Radioblogger), Hugh Hewitt interviewed General Thomas McInerney, the retired assistant vice chief of staff of the Air Force, formerly director of the Defense Performance Review, and the founder of Government Reform Through Technology, GRTT. General McInerney had this to say:
HH: General, what do you make of the fact that in recent days, Major General John Batiste, and retired Marine Corps General Greg Newbold, Army Major General Paul Eaton, Marine Corps General Zinni have all spoken out against the Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and portions of the war. Are you surprised by this?
TM: Well, I don't know. I haven't heard Batiste. I've heard Zinni's comments, or read Zinni's comments. I've read Greg Newbold. I'm on a board with Greg. I'm somewhat surprised, but when I read their comments, I'm embarrassed for them. For instance, Zinni wants stability in the region. He says it's not an ideology we're fighting. Hugh, we are fighting an ideology as bad as Communism, Nazism and Facism. It's Islamic extremism. That is our problem there. If General Tony Zinni doesn't understand that, who I used to have great respect for, and he was the commander of Central Command, I think we're in deep trouble.
One more point: There's been a lot of criticism of Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. Maybe some of it is justified; a lot of it isn't. One thing to keep in mind, however -- and which the MSM rarely mentions -- is the fact that anyone who (like Secretary Rumsfeld) comes in and tries to reform a bureaucracy (and yes, the Pentagon is a bureaucracy) is going to make enemies within that bureaucracy. The trick is separating justified criticism from score-settling.
posted by LadybugUSA at 8:18 AM
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