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Pundit Pap
for Sunday, April 23, 2006
Quick Takes
by the Pundit Pap Team: Shystee | Leah
April 23, 2006—correntewire.com / apj.us—Two quick takes on the Sunday Media Atrocities....
CBS Face The Nation: General John Batiste, Pat Buchanan and John Podesta
by Leah
Bob Schieffer’s single interviewee was Major-General John Batiste, and though many of us may have seen him in other media contexts, this Sunday, he was singularly impressive - clear, impassioned, patriotic, committed to American democratic values, and the General’s candor was startling.
His decision to speak out against the current administration policy in Iraq he characterized as gut-wrenching, but a decision based on the fundamental values he’d learned at West Point - “duty, honor, country.” To speak out, the General said, was an honor.
It seemed clear that Batiste was among those military officers who, from the beginning of Rumsfeld’s tenure at DOD found him to be “contemptuous, dismissive, arrogant,” words the General repeatedly used about the Secretary of Defense.
But General Batiste also acknowledged that civilian control of the American military is and ought to be sacrosanct, which is why, despite Rumsfeld’s inability to hear dissenting opinions, and despite Batiste’s reservations about Rumsfeld’s plans for the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the General decided to stay with “my soldiers.”
And yes, according to Batiste, many in the top military brass did critique with candor the administration’s plans, such as they were, both for invasion and the subsequent occupation; “within the military, we speak out.” But, in the final analysis, it is the civilian leadership who makes the final decisions; it falls to the military to salute and obey; “you execute, or you get out.”
His decision to retire appears to have been linked to what Batiste saw and experienced in Iraq, a decision to place himself outside the military, so that, as he said to Schieffer, I could be here with you now.
However, his doubts and disillusion with the way plans for the Iraqi invasion and aftermath were developed by the DOD was there from the beginning, before he served in Iraq. The problems encountered, were all predictable, the insurgency, the failure to preserve as much of the civilian infrastructure as possible, the need to supply immediate security, which should have argued against standing down the entire Iraqi military, even Abu Ghraib, all predictable.
How was Abu Ghraib predictable? Batiste pointed out that in the military, you keep policy simple; by sending mixed signals about adherence to the Geneva Convention, while placing troops and commanders on the ground in near impossible to control situations, with too few troops, Abu Ghraib became predictable.
Although the General didn’t say so in so many words, one sensed his disgust at the way the civilian leadership in the DOD, and by implication the President they serve, threw ordinary soldiers to the wolves, holding their own leadership unaccountable in the process.
Accountability was another of Batiste’s major themes
That “execute, or get out,” also strikes me as an excellent riposte to the idiocies of America-haters like Glenn Reynolds and Judith Klinghoffer.
And there’s this fact, mentioned Friday on Air America, by Joe Conason, I believe, that the retirement of this two-star General meant giving up the scheduled reward of a third star - not a small sacrifice, except when compared with the sacrifices of the men and women who have prosecuted this war and occupation on the ground in Iraq; we don’t even have to bring in the nightmare that Iraq has become for its own citizens, all of which General Batiste seemed aware of throughout this morning’s interview.
To the critique that Batiste and the other Generals who have spoken out on the subject of Rumsfeld are malcontents who are resistant to his reforms, Batiste replied, “nonsense,” pointing out that the transition to a lighter, more mobile armed forces began well before this administration took office. And the reality is, Batiste insisted, that we now have a military that is over-committed and under-resourced.
Schieffer asked about comments Batiste made back in 2004, when he was still on active duty, commander in Iraq; unsurprisingly, like other Batiste statements quoted in winger blogs, this one was entirely supportive of the Bush administration policy in Iraq, praising Rumsfeld, in particular.
Batiste’s response: the quote in question occurred while the General was introducing to his soldiers the visiting Secretary of Defense; Batiste is a soldier, he was on active duty, carrying out policy he was sworn to execute and support. “I said what I had to say”
And as soon as he could, he retired, early, minus that third star, so that he could be free to speak out, to say what needs to be said, what the American people have a right to know.
None of this was new information, but it was indeed startling to hear one of the Generals who did the fighting say exactly what all critics of this war have been saying for three years now.
Pat Buchanan and John Podesta were there to “analyze” what Batiste had said.
Unsurprisingly, Buchanan agreed with much of what Batiste had said, but Bush had no option but to refuse the Generals “demand” that Rumsfeld be fired. Buchanan has never lost his Nixonian view of the Presidency as a democratically elected dictator, whose major task is to make policy in spite of all the other institutions of government.
Of course, none of these generals, and certainly not General Batiste, have demanded anything. They have spoken out on behalf of accountability, but dictators, after all, are only accountable to themselves, and to those who underwrite their retention of power.
NBC Meet the Press: Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), David Broder, Tony Blankley, Ken Brownstein, Dee-Dee Myers
by Shystee
What did we learn from today’s Meet The Press? Some would say Jack MF S**t.
We learned that Ted Kennedy’s (D-Mayor Quimby) head is almost as disproportionately large as Timmeh’s melon. Perhaps a giant nugget-shaped cranium is the key to political power and influence.
We learned that Ted Quimby spoke at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University as well, so he doesn’t have a problem with his good friend John McCain giving the commencement speech.
Ted told us that India is graduating 350,000 engineers, we’re graduating 75,000 and half of those are foreign students. If we took the 10 billion a month we’re spending on Iraq we could pay for Teddy’s Contract with Students: Uncle Sam will pay for college.
Ted said that Nuclear Light Saber Rattling at Iran is not cool:
Timmah: Would you keep the military option on the table?
Teddah: Not the nuclear military option.
Timmah: What if the military came to you and said the only way is to use tactical nuclear weapons.
Teddah: I cannot think of the circumstances that would warrant that… I would not rattle the nuclear saber
On this subject we can learn a lot more from the Internet political obsessives than a high budget network show:
A scattering of newspapers have reported that a large conventional test explosion called Divine Strake, planned for June at the Nevada Test Site, will simulate nuclear weapons use. One purpose of the program of which that test is a part, according to Department of Defense budget documents, is to develop a planning tool that will improve the warfighter's confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage.
But consider the source: this person allegedly grows vegetables. Randi Rhodes has also been freaking out about this for most of last week.
Roundtable
Leaks and the Leaking Leakers:
Consensus: It’s the leakers and the government’s problem
“Dean” Broder: lie detector tests like the one administered to CIA agent Myers are extreme<
Ron Brownstein: The question about leaks: is the country better off knowing?
White House Furniture Rearrangement
Brownstein - Rove’s power comes from his relationship with the president, not his title.
Pumpkinhead: Would you shut off the cameras for the press conferences?
Dee Dee Myers (Clinton Press Secretary): Yeah sure. There’s a contentious relationship with the press, With the cameras on it just makes for more posturing.
“Dean” Broder - The problem is not Scott “Sucka MC” McClellan, it’s Bush. There is no interest in keeping the public informed.
Brownstein - White House is not interested in the MSM, more interested in targeted media (Internet, radio, “the more partisan news outlets”) to reach their base.
Deaniac - The problem with the niche strategy you only reach 52% on a good day, other days you reach what you’re seeing now.. [i.e. 33%]
“The Decider” decides to keep Rummy
Broder - Discussion about Rummy is useless if we take the Prez at his word, he’s made up his mind.
Tony “Fat F$@k with Unplaceable Accent” Blankley - It’s about civilian control of the military.
At Least Fat Tony got to spit out the GOP talking point about Rummy. Pumpkinhead brought up that Tony has been considered for White House Press Whipping Boy. Tony said no thanks.
Whatever freakish creature they concoct to replace Sucka MC, it really doesn’t matter. The more incompetent the better. And that the overall strategy of the Bushies: it’s not just contempt for the press and the public’s right to know, it’s contempt for the concept of Government.
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