On ABC’s “This Week” this morning, George Will’s retort to Robert Gates, Fred Kagan and everyone else criticizing his call for troop withdrawal in Afghanistan, was to note support for his position from former Marine Commandant Gen. Chuck Krulak and other military brass. From the Politico:
George Will, whose columnn last week calling for the U.S. to pull its troops out of Afghanistan brought a smackdown from Defense Secretary Robert Gates, is sticking to his guns.
The conservative columnist told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday that there’s almost no way to add troops to the fight without coming off as an occupying force.
Then he pulled out a letter from former Marine Commandant Gen. Chuck Krulak in support of his position.
“We’re going to have a debate, and there will be plenty of brass on my side,” Will said.
An actual debate in the conservative mainstream about U.S. foreign policy? Bring it on.
Re: “there will be plenty of brass on my side”
Sorry, I agree that the Afghan “war” is a disaster. But the most egregious political crime George Bush committed was the explicit cultivation of military exceptionalism. I.e., The US military alone can solve any geo-political problem.
The uniformed leadership of course bought into that narrative of being the Best and Brightest at all things. And a product of that hubris was their rank politicization by Bush-Cheney. No longer was the military an agent of policy, it was transformed into the mouthpiece of policy.
The tasking to the military is to respond to the directives of civilian leadership. Not to be cheerleaders of any specific policy because that policy could change tomorrow.
The last thing America needs is more “brass” inserting themselves in civilian policy discussions. For every Krulak, the neo-cons can trot out 10 retired “exceptionalist” generals to argue for continued imperialism. Tell Krulak and his pals on the the other side of the fence to stay home.