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Locking Out The Politics
July 31, 2007
    One afternoon after school, I was listening to few videos from both the CNN Database, and the FoxNews Database. I don’t often watch television, but I do like hearing and seeing my news above reading it. Sometimes, if I could find a transcript of the video, then I would listen to the talk and read along, so in that sense I would read(other than books and magazines that is). Well, I came across a Fox News video being anchored by David Asman. For those of you who don’t know, he’s a father-in-law of a United States Marine. Anyway, the discussion was about politics and how it ruins everything, especially when it comes to his hometown of Washington D.C. He further says that things would be better without it ruining everything. For many of us here at A Soldier’s Mind, we know quite well how right he is, due to the fact that we see some really personal debates that go on in our threads. At the same time, we all know that our discussions could go more smoothly without politics bastardizing half of the topics that we cover here. So David is in pretty good company. Another one of those individuals who would make up that good company, would be United States Army General David H. Petraeus.
    In a recent article that I just found surfing the web at the Department of Defense’s website “DefenseLink. I read that Petraeus wants to keep politics outside of the testimony that he will be giving Congress in September about the ground assessment on Iraq. He says, “It will be the ground truth” and that they will try to stay apolitical throughout the whole endeavor. Petreaus feels that he and Maliki(Iraqi President) have a good relationship and politics does nothing else but “throw sand in the gears of the relationship”. He wants to sustain the friendship he has with the Iraqi President and wants nothing to go against that, including politics. Of course, some people don’t want that, due to the fact that it may be a huge factor in solving the problems being experienced in Iraq.
    Overall, the general’s mission is to work with the Iraqi government so that way he can start drawing down our troops without having to sacrifice all the good that was gained from surging the troop levels in Iraq, and bringing troop levels back up again after having drawed down. His primary plan to accomplish that would be to do more partnering with Iraqi ground forces rather than leading them, which would be basically passing all the heavy responsibilites to the Iraqi forces. The general believes that inorder to acheive this, he and his counterparts here and in Iraq must try to be apolitical. However, that may be extremely difficult because he’ll be testifying in front of a very, very partisan Congress whose current objective is to force feed the American public the false notion that “Iraq is a failing effort” in the same manner in which preists force fed the false notion to young boys that if they masturbated they’d go blind back in the medieval period. Chances are, since it seems that many in Congress wants Iraq to fail, they won’t even listen to Mr. Petreaus. Afterall, a few Congress members just recently walked out on another general who decided to take a stand against the false premises that state “there is more bad going on in Iraq than good”. If Congress isn’t willing to hear that they’re wrong, then more or less, they’re not willing to listen to Petreaus’ constructive criticism. This is why politics doesn’t have a place in the general’s Spetember Iraq ground situation report.
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13 Responses to “Locking Out The Politics”
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I agree Ryan that the politics should be put aside and our Troops allowed to do their jobs. However, I just don’t see that happening. As unfortunate as that is…
Seal Pat,
War is politics, plain and simple. There is no way the two can be separated; unless, of course, you are willing to replace our current system of democracy for an oligarchy or monarchy or something similar thereto.
Indeed, and thankfully, the forefathers showed incredible prescience when drafting the constitution to ensure that politics would be a part of war!
To explore the subject further, you might add to your summer reading list “To Chain the Dog of War,” by Edwin Firmage. It is an excellent and insightful read, particularly for those interested in political science.
Isn’t Firmage one of the authors over at 1U? Hmmmmmm….. that would lead one to surmise that perhaps his book would be rather one-sided,instead of a balanced look at the subject matter.
I believe that Firmage posts every once in a while at 1U. He is also an emeritus law professor with a very distinguished resume:
http://edfirmage.net/cv_edfirmage.pdf
I’d let the book speak for itself!
I’ve read some of the things he has written and from reading his work, I’ve come to a conclusion. That conclusion is, that in his writing, it’s very obvious that he goes in with a specific agenda. He rarely looks at both sides of an issue. No thanks Sharon…. I’ll stick with writers who are willing to look at both the pro and con of an issue.
I would expect little else from you, Terri, than to simply judge a book by its cover. And it is precisely that reasoning that permits many to judge the war in Iraq by what they see and hear - fubar!
I’ve often wondered, that if Mr. Firmage is indeed such an esteemed figure in legal circles, why he would chose to associate himself and his name with some of the childish actions that take place at 1U (calling people pogues, the blatant disrespect for people of other opinions, racial slurs, etc). In my way of thinking, associating with that kind of behavior, doesn’t tend to make that person appear very credible.
As I said Sharon, I’ve read some of his writings and didn’t find him looking at both sides of issues, but instead going in with biases firmly in place.
[...] House Contact the Webmaster Link to Article iraq Locking Out The Politics » Posted at A Soldier’s Mind on Tuesday, July 31, [...]
“An important book . . . that I wish every member of Congress and would-be president would carefully study.”
– George McGovern
“A timely and valuable study that makes a useful contribution to preserving the Constitution and our hopes for survival.”
– Journal of American History
“To Chain the Dog of War does an excellent job of putting together some very complex material, and it comes out at a most propitious time.”
– Arthur S. Miller, Professor of Law, George Washington University
“A most thorough study. . . . it would be useful is this book could be prescribed to our decision-makers as required reading.”
– Louis B. Sohn, University of Georgia, School of Law
I could think of a LOT of things that should be “required reading” by our government leaders….. Marcus Luttrell’s book Lone Survivor, as an example.
Trackbacked by The Thunder Run - Web Reconnaissance for 08/01/2007
A short recon of what’s out there that might draw your attention, updated throughout the day…so check back often.
Very good article Ryan.