To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [Homestead] The impossible job
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 08:08:26 -0500
By now many or most Americans are getting tired of reading about conditions
in Iraq. There is a danger: not learning the lesson and being condemned to
repeat the mistake. Many thought that Viet Nam would surely be instructive
to future decision makers. We were wrong, of course. Politicians with an
agenda make the right noises, phony the photo ops, cavil the caveats, then
do the damned deed. We should have a Potential Presidents College where
military history is a required subject. Anyone who gets a C grade should be
disqualified.
This is a story about the results of failed leadership, about how good men
work hard to clean up the dirty messes caused by stupid men and how
impossible is the task.
The Fall of the Warrior King
By DEXTER FILKINS
Published: October 23, 2005
The body had not yet turned up. Indeed, at that point, early in January
2004, it wasn't clear there was a body at all. Months later, at the trial,
the lawyers would still be arguing about it, the puffy, wrinkled corpse
that was finally found floating face down in an irrigation canal off the
Tigris. But even then, even before the dead man surfaced, it was clear that
something had gone wrong on that cold Iraqi night down by the river,
something wild by the American military's standards of discipline and
force, and the problem had wended its way up the chain of command to the
unit's commander, Lt. Col. Nathan Sassaman. . . .
[It's a long story. Anyone who still thinks the Iraq Invasion was a good
idea should read it. Anyone who still thinks that optional wars are ever an
answer to anything should read it. Everyone should read it.]
[Homestead] The impossible job,
Gene GeRue, 10/23/2005