Those Who Lead Us In and Sustain War

Gen. Richard Myers


Visit the NewsHour Site to Listen To, Watch And/Or Read Transcript! This is a Military Leader who is suppose to care about the Men/Women he Commands before sending them into Conflict first and foremost, only he was right on talking points that have long ago become stale with the lies they were built on! This is a cold hearted opportunists of power and greed, as those he has joined in this inhumanity!! It made me sick to watch his smug self righteous performance!!
Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers NewsHour Interview

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Richard Myers, who will step down from his post this September, speaks with Jim Lehrer about military challenges in Iraq and Afghanistan, his role as military adviser to the president, and his relationship with Sec. of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

[Below is text taken from an article written the next day of similar thoughts as mine]

The Fake Optimism of Washingtons Warriors by Norman Soloman

In front of TV cameras, Pentagon officials do their best to make war sound wise and noble. Most of all, they lie.

For the most powerful war-makers in Washington, the most dangerous potential enemies are the citizens of the United States who might insist on an end to taxpayer subsidies for mass slaughter. To forestall such a calamity, officials proclaim endlessly that the war's worst days have passed and the future looks increasingly bright for the ravaged land and for the freedom-loving invaders whose invasion has ravaged it.

[We all know what McNamara stated, years too late, only a few years ago]

The general was tap dancing in the footsteps of many who came before him - during another long war based on deception and the assumption that the USA must keep killing in order to be credible on the world stage. When Defense Secretary Robert McNamara visited Vietnam for the first time, he came back and told the press that he'd seen "nothing but progress and hopeful indications of further progress in the future." McNamara made that statement in May 1962.

More than four years later, in October 1966, McNamara held a news conference at Andrews Air Force Base after returning from a trip to Vietnam. Again he spoke with enthusiasm about the progress he'd seen there. But former Pentagon aide Daniel Ellsberg has recounted that McNamara made that presentation to the press "minutes after telling me that everything was much worse than the year before."

[The 1966 News Conference was roughly a year before I joined the Military. It was roughly four years before I was sent to Vietnam for In-Country Duty. And after returning from my year tour and being discharged, it was three years later that the pullout occurred!]

Of course the commander in chief is not to be outdone. He is, among his other duties, the commander of war lies. And so, as with George W. Bush today, Lyndon Johnson professed to be grandly optimistic when he proclaimed in early 1967: "Peace is more within our reach than at any time in this century."

Washington's warriors insist that Iraq is not Vietnam. Any geographer would certainly agree. But imperial wars share similar characteristics - including the profound fact that the people who live in a country are more committed to it than the invaders are. This war can't be won for reasons that have everything to do with why it's wrong. The occupiers are on the lowest moral ground. No amount of fake optimism in Washington can change such realities in Iraq.

Thou destroyest those who speak lies; the Lord abhors bloodthirsty and deceitful
men." ~~ David, Psalms 5:4