The Turncoat Generals: Et tu, Brutus?

 
They ought to be ashamed, these former military men, with their blabbing mouths and lack of discretion.

CNN is reporting the fifth, or perhaps the sixth, retired general to come forth and complain about Rumsfeld. You have to wonder about their sense of honor. In what was a very self-revealing remark, one of these worthies was quoted by The Washington Post recently:

Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs, said he believes that his peer group is "a pretty closemouthed bunch" but that, even so, his sense is "everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out."

This bunch of talking heads, wanting face time on television, are a disgrace. They undermine the men they left behind and they ought to be told so. “Closemouthed bunch” indeed.

Colonel John Boyd used to tell those in the Pentagon that he mentored that they would reach a point in their lives where they would have to decide to do something or to be somebody. If they wanted to do, they could give up the track for a general's star. But they could rest assured they would be making a real contribution rather than just being part of the pack in "The Building" -- as he termed the Pentagon.


Here is part of a testimony to Colonel Boyd:

a man who, as a full colonel, went toe to toe, time after time, with a phalanx of two-and three-star generals for the good of the country, winning most of his battles and surviving long enough to help provide secretary of defense Richard Cheney the ideas needed for swift and decisive victory in the Persian Gulf War. ("Keep it simple - so that the generals will understand it," Boyd frequently told his small band of fellow guerrillas, known collectively as "The Acolytes.")

Boyd was, in the words of Pierre Sprey - a Pentagon "Whiz Kid" who became a close friend and advocate of the colonel and eulogized him that wintry morning five years ago - one of the rare few who were "defined by the courts-martial and investigations they faced." He also was, biographer Robert Coram tells Insight, "the most important unknown man of his time and the most remarkable unsung hero in American military history."

Read the rest of "How Colonel Boyd Beat the Generals" (linked above) and realize how superfluous most of these glory boys are.

Boyd was a contrarian genius who changed warfare. This opportunistic bunch are collecting their pensions and betraying the men they led and their former boss. Of course they’re doing it from the safety of their armchairs under the bright TV lights.

Book deals, anyone?