Columnist, Pentti Sademies in the Helsingin Sanomat (19.4.06) postulates the following :
“Can a defense secretary be any longer effective in his position, if one general after another during a time of war, has publically demanded for his resignation?” And “The atmosphere in the US Pentagon’s Defense Department is badly poisoned. A Secretary can no longer know in whose loyalty he can dare rely on. Subordinates must take into consideration, that the only reward for a honest assesment could be a swift end to a career.”
On the surface, one could conclude that the scenario Sademies describes, “a US Defence Department “reeling under the weight” of fighting on three fronts, (Iraq and Afghanistan and the Pentagon) is an incredibily dire situation. But lets back up a bit. The article speaks about seven retired generals out of approximately 7000 retired generals total, that fact alone reduces Sademies’s argument to that of ‘ankle biting’. John Hinderaker at the Powerline Blogspot answers the question of what to think of the retired “Generals of Seven”, by drawing attention to the 6993 generals that have remained silent.
Its somewhat reminiscent of the +30 Israeli airforce officers a few years back, that signed a joint declaration of being against the IDF’s policies ect. in the disputed territories. All were non-active/retired, the same miniscule number of vocal critics out of thousands of retired officers, along with the same familiar media hype.
Its also somewhat reminiscent of the media hype over the US military not acheiving the recruiting numbers desired, but overlooking the fact of soldier re-inlistment was at an all time high, and that these numbers overwhelmingly reflected the common desire of the re-inlisting soldiers/officers to serve again in Iraq.
Its also reminiscent of the media hype over a few hundred Israeli soldier refusniks who declined to serve in the dispute territories, to the tune of an all time high of enlistment of Jews world wide to serve in the IDF.
Once again, the overtly Leftist media will lunge at any sign of dissent within the ranks as proof of failure that THEY are only aware of. Sademies in no different in that respect, representing the same level of ankle biting that exists throughout the Finnish news media. KGS
