The only generals who support the Bush Doctrine are General Electric and General Dynamics.
"There is some background noise here, a lot of chatter, a lot of speculation and opining." - George Bush, Oct. 20, 2005
Here's Bush's (1000% Percent support statement) on Rummy: I have seen first-hand how Don relies upon our military commanders in
the field and at the Pentagon to make decisions about how best to
complete these missions. Secretary Rumsfeld's energetic and steady
leadership is exactly what is needed at this critical period. He has my
full support and deepest appreciation.
Based on that statement, I'd say a week at most
and then Rummy's health problems lead to a resignation, effective, say,
the first week of Nov. It is the kiss of death for Bush to say "He has
my full support and deepest appreciation."
I know it sounds nuts but I think they are really considering
appointing Lieberman. It's a rat fuck move and, well, that's a lot of
that going around.
Up to this point, President Bush could offer the lie that he was giving
the military everything they asked for and no one challenged him. To
quote Edgar Allen Poe, "nevermore". The die is now cast for the
Republican controlled Congress. The respective heads of the Armed
Services Committees, Senator Warner and Congressman Duncan Hunter, now
realize that a critical mass of generals has come forward and that Don
Rumsfeld has suffered the parliamentary equivalent of a vote of no
confidence.
This is not a simple case of the military trying to usurp or
embarrass civilian leaders. The growing chorus of senior military
officers recognize that if they do not speak out now that the debacle
in Iraq could erode the publics' confidence that military leaders,
especially those in the Army and the Marines, and leave the military
with a tarnished legacy like the aftermath of Vietnam.
Don Rumsfeld may want to stick it out, but stick a fork in him. His goose is cooked and his reign will soon be over.
That’s an impressive group, but you can’t forget the Fighting Dems either. Over 50 veterans of both the Iraq and Vietnam wars who are running as Democrats in 2006 because of the Iraq war.
Well, when you've got Tim Russert working late on Good Friday to report
that they were trying to avert "civil war" at the Pentagon today,
sounds like the country has big troubles. Are things in Iraq even worse
than we think?
"The Knives Are Out For Rummy", "David Ignatius joins the chorus of folks calling for the head of
Secretary Don Rumsfeld in today's Washington Post. Ignatius calls
Rumsfeld a "spent force" and says that he's lost nearly all support
from the officers’ corps: 'When I recently asked an Army officer with extensive Iraq combat
experience how many of his colleagues wanted Rumsfeld out, he guessed
75 percent. Based on my own conversations with senior officers over the
past three years, I suspect that figure may be low…."'
The Revolt of the Generals is about Iran, not Iraq. They won't stop it.
I think the bombing starts in weeks, not months. Nobody is going to
want the job after the war kicks into second gear.
As if being a Reservist called up for duty in Iraq wasn't bad enough, what if you're called a Terrorist and then not allowed on a plane so you can get home to be with your family. Just when you think that things can't get any worse - they always do.
There is no recourse for those on the list, and their stories
quickly take on a Kafkaesque tone. People can be put on the list for
any reason; no standards exist. There's no ability to review any
evidence against you, or even confirm that you are actually on the
list.
And, for most people, there's no way to get off the list or to
"prove" once and for all that they're not whoever the list is really
looking for. It took Kennedy three weeks to get his name off the list.
People without his political pull have spent years futilely trying to
clear their names.
Imagine
if the world's most notorious fugitive, Osama bin Laden, attempted to
board an airliner in the United States. Suppose he were clean-shaven,
sporting short hair, wearing a pinstriped business suit and looked like
so many other travelers that no suspicions were raised. How far might
he get? If he used aliases such as names of family members, he would be
nabbed instantly and whisked away for questioning. That's because many
of his relatives are on the FBI's secret "no-fly list," according to
intelligence sources.
But
suppose he boldly decided to use his own name. Would he be cleared to
fly? Insight recently learned that scenario was tested at a U.S.
airport in the South during January. The result was troubling:
America's most-wanted fugitive is cleared to fly. According to
airline-security documents obtained by this magazine, the name Osama
bin Laden was punched into the computer by an airline official and,
remarkably, that name was cleared at the security checkpoint all
passengers must pass through before being issued a boarding pass.
The
realization that Osama bin Laden made the cut sent shivers down the
spines of airline-security officials who discovered the system gap.
On the other hand, look at someone who is NOT allowed to fly. A Marine reservist returning home after eight months in IRAQ was told he couldn't board a plane to Minneapolis because his name appeared on a watch list as a possible terrorist.
Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown, who was in uniform and returning from the
war Tuesday with 26 other Marine military police reservists, was
delayed briefly in Los Angeles until the issue was cleared up.
The other reservists arrived at Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Airport as scheduled, but instead of immediately meeting their
families, they waited on a bus for Brown.
"We don't leave anybody behind," 1st Sgt. Drew Benson said. "We start together, and we finish together."
Brown, 32, arrived more than an hour later. He had also had airport
trouble when he was trying to go to Iraq — and he missed his plane then
as well.
"A guy goes over and serves his country fighting for eight or nine
months, and then we come home and put up with this?" he asked.
Nico Melendez, a spokesman for the Transportation Security
Administration, said Wednesday he could not confirm or deny whether
someone was on a watch list. He said Brown's case should have been
fairly easy for the airline to clear up in Los Angeles.
"It should have taken 10 minutes," he said. "We do regret that an American hero was inconvenienced."
Who
goes onto these secret lists is of great interest to terrorists but
also has been a sore point among passengers who claim the Bush
administration may be targeting those critical of administration
policies and intelligence operations. While both the TSA and FBI insist
they don't target groups based on political orientation but focus on
suspicious traveling patterns and names of suspected terrorists, this
does not explain why some repeatedly have had problems boarding planes.
Consider just a few examples:
Barbara
Olshansky, assistant director for the liberal Center for Constitutional
Rights, was ordered to drop her pants in front of other travelers for a
strip search in 2002. She consistently has had problems getting cleared
to fly, and the group is in the midst of litigation about this.
Doug Stuber, who ran Ralph Nadar's presidential Green
Party campaign in North Carolina in 2000, was flagged and questioned by
the U.S. Secret Service about his politics prior to attempting to board
a flight to Germany for business in 2002. During the discussion, Stuber
screamed out, "George Bush is as dumb as a rock," which prompted
officers to bring in the Secret Service for further interrogation.
Stuber was barred from taking any flight that day and missed his
business trip.
Two
American anti-war protesters, Rebecca Gordon and Jan Adams, who
co-publish the San Francisco-based War Times, were stopped at ATA
airlines in 2002 after the computer spat out their names as being on
the FBI's no-fly list. Airline officials later claimed this was a
"mistake" and that the names should not have been so listed. Gordon and
Adams eventually were cleared to fly after they were questioned and the
ticket agent placed a large "S" on their ticket stubs for additional
scrutiny during the baggage-check phase.
Virgine Lawinger, a nun in Milwaukee who is an
activist with Peace Action, was stopped with about 20 of her students
in 2002 as they attempted to board a plane to Washington, where they
had hoped to lobby against U.S. military aid to the Colombian
government.
What if there was a war but no came? Let's put ALL our soldiers on the no-fly list.
Here's Bush's (1000% Percent support statement) on Rummy: 
