REVOLT OF THE GENERALS IMMINENT?

Appearing on NBC’s Chris Matthews Show this morning, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker revealed that sources within the military are warning of “a revolt from active-duty generals if September rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into ‘08.”


Noting that retired generals such as Gen. John Batiste have already begun voicing their discontent with the president’s strategy in Iraq, Tucker added that the generals “don’t want to fall by the wayside like the generals in Vietnam did, kept pushing a war that they knew was lost.”
When President Bush vetoed the Iraq timeline legislation earlier this month, he claimed that “the measure would ‘impose impossible conditions on our commanders in combat’ by forcing them to ‘take fighting directions from politicians 6,000 miles away in Washington, DC.’”

But despite past claims that “the right force level” will be determined by “the sober judgement of our military leaders,” the Bush administration has a proven track record of disregarding the advice of military leaders. As recently as last December, when the White House was first pushing its escalation plan, the administration explicitly ignored “the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

It appears the commanders on the ground in Iraq are getting tired of “taking fighting directions” from a politician “6,000 miles away” in the White House. And they might not stay quiet for long.

Transcript:

TUCKER: Look for a revolt from active-duty generals if September rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into ‘08. We’ve already heard from retired generals. But my Atlanta Journal-Constitution colleague Jay Bookman has lots of sources among currently serving military officers who don’t want to fall by the wayside like the generals in Vietnam did, kept pushing a war that they knew was lost.

With Video...
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/13/generals-revolt/

Transcript:

TUCKER: Look for a revolt from active-duty generals if September rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into ‘08. We’ve already heard from retired generals. But my Atlanta Journal-Constitution colleague Jay Bookman has lots of sources among currently serving military officers who don’t want to fall by the wayside like the generals in Vietnam did, kept pushing a war that they knew was lost.


BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- American soldiers discovered a girls school being built north of Baghdad had become an explosives-rigged "death trap," the U.S. military said Thursday.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/05/03/iraq.school.bomb/index.html

“The plot at the Huda Girls' school in Tarmiya was a "sophisticated and premeditated attempt to inflict massive casualties on our most innocent victims," military spokesman Maj. Gen. William Caldwell said. The military suspects the plot was the work of al Qaeda, because of its nature and sophistication, Caldwell said in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

The plot was uncovered Saturday, when troopers in the Salaheddin province found detonating wire across the street from the school. They picked up the wire and followed its trail, which led to the school. Once inside, they found an explosive-filled propane tank buried beneath the floor. There were artillery shells built into the ceiling and floor, and another propane tank was found, the military said. The wire was concealed with mortar and concrete, and the propane tanks had been covered with brick and hidden underneath the floor, according to a military statement. Soldiers were able to clear the building.

"It was truly just an incredibly ugly, dirty kind of vicious killing that would have gone on here," Caldwell said.
 Iraqi contractors were responsible for building the school, which was intended to bring in hundreds of girls. "Given the care and work put into emplacing this IED, it is likely it had been planned for a long time" and it is thought that "the IED was not intended to be set off until the building was occupied," the military said. Authorities intend to question the Iraqis involved in the school's construction.
This came out 10 days ago and then there was a news blackout. Whenever this s**t comes up in the media and then gets blacked out, it should send up warning flags. For those that understand the impact of demotition, this is an interesting story.


Let us look at the facts before speculating:

1) All infrastructure (schools, hospitals, roads, power plants, water sanitation, etc.) is being built with US money and an assortment of contractors.
2) The #1 contractor is a Dubai owned company who goes by the name of Halliburton and its former CEO is our Vice President Dick Cheney.

3) Halliburton sub-contracts over 90% of the work to others for pennies on the dollar.

4) US has done minimal oversight on Halliburton and almost no oversight on subcontracts (they do not even have copies of these mysterious contracts).

5) Halliburton does almost no oversight on the sub-contracts.

6) The media has jumped all over this story for a few hours about a school for Iraqi school children that has been wired to explode killing possibly hundreds of innocent Iraqi school girls (aged under 10).

7) The story says that there is an investigation into the "Iraqi contractors." (I did not know there were any Iraqi contractors as Iraqis are hardly allowed to sell fruit much less build schools without US military presence.)
8)After the peak in media attention, there has been a media blackout about this story.

9) Many intelligence officers (CIA/SAS/MI6) have been found setting up, transporting, blowing up IEDs throughout Iraq.
10) After the intelligence officers are captured by Iraqis (only reason we know about it), confrontations with US military results in their immediate release.

Concerning 8) Doesn't this demand immediate attention? CIA/SAS/MI6 (code name "Al-Qaeda") seem to be creating new tactics to stop the Iraqi government from securing the country and no longer needing Bush Co's mafia protection. Why isn't the media talking about this important shift in tactics?