Not One More, you are right. these are the complaints of a consummate insider, whose interest is protecting the military, not international law or a criminal war of aggression. the soldiers are victims of this war, too, but they are not the principal victims, by any means.

take this line, which odom surely knows to be false:
"The occasional willful killing of civilians in a few cases is probably indicative of such loss of effectiveness. These incidents don't seem to occur during the first half of a unit's deployment in Iraq."

http://www.counterpunch.com/schwartz07052007.html
this article estimates the US is killing 300 civilians PER DAY. this is not the work of PTSD afflicted soldiers, but the work of US policy.

The General joins the anti-Bush chorus. This is a measured check against any anti-military chorus that could potentially erupt, and it's high time that it does. We should teach our children to avoid the military lie, give them the lesson that war is designed for profit. Instruct our children that they don't need to die for GE or General Dynamics, or some worthless ideal. If we once and for all keep the money, the investment, away from the war machine and hobble the Pentagon, we'll be doing our future a great service. Unfortunately, the mafia doesn't behave well, and they have low regard for certain people as is required. They'll level buildings or city blocks, if need be.

"Why do the Democrats allow this to happen?"

Because they are corrupt, that's why. Because they are more interested in sucking on the corporate teat than in doing the public's business, that's why. Because the likes of Hillary Klintstone, Stainedy Hoyer, Nancy Shillosi, and the rest of the bought-and-sold "leadership" of the party have sold their sorry souls to the same earth- and democracy-destroying fascists that afflict us so sorely, that's why.

I sometimes believe that these pigs have a secret plan to launch spaceships to Mars with themselves and some brown servants on board--just as the last iceberg melts and ocean waters cover Manhattan. There is no other rational explanation for why they are so willing to sacrifice the planet so that they can keep their mansions and Learjets.

General Odom, Thank you for your words. Have you any opinion regarding the removal of madmen from our government?

You use the word 'squandered': Good choice.

Support for our troops is a meaningless phrase when uttered by those with no loyalties beyond those they display to the wishes of their corporate masters.

Support should have started with proper gear and safe quarters when not on actual duty.

Please consult with other general officers and men of stature among your acquaintances and ask if any of them can recall a precedent for good men to remove sick men from office.

Well said, General. I just wonder how many of your comrades-in-arms still in service have guts to stand tall and demand that what you just so rightly said?

This spine-enhancing article should be immediately forwarded to Pelosi and Reid. Perhaps a 30+ year ex-General who ran Reagan's NSA can show them the way out of Bush's mid-east mess. If this plan isn't clear enough then maybe we'd best hope the bin Laden bunch's next target is D.C. We could use a government that does its job.

This admonition by an American brass is the worst ever with regard to high treason committed by all three branches of our Government.
But there is another culprit behind the scene, even more treacherous - the Gimmi generation, which is mindlessly squandering intellectual and material legacy, bequethed to them by all previous generations.

What can we do, lthe onely guards of American treasure, to impeach them? To proclaim helplessly, We accuse?

"The Clinton administration cut the Army end strength by about 40 percent - from about 770,000 to 470,000 during the 1990s."

-okay-

"Sadly, the lack of wisdom in that change in force structure is being paid for not by President Bush or President Clinton but..."

-so former President Clinton is to be falted because he didn't foresee that his successor would illegally and unnecessarily invade a country and get stuck and need more troops? Personally, I shiver at the thought of Cheney/Bush having 300,000 more soldiers at their disposal.-

After reading that survey here, it looks like we're pretty much screwed.

I have always wondered how supporting the troops meant keeping them in the line of fire in a pointless and illegal war until such time as they were killed or wounded. Apparently, it doesn't.

"The final step should be to put that president on notice that if ignores this legislative action and tries to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril, impeachment proceeding will proceed in the House of Representatives. Such presidential behavior surely would constitute the "high crime" of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest."

The Bush Plan "A" is to surge our military involvement in Iraq up to his last day in office. He will then dump the entire mess in the lap of the next president, who will invariably end up involved in a withdrawal. In short, Bush is "face saving." It is a high crime to squander American troop lives and grievous injury for the sake of Bush face saving.

Just a little bit hypocritical??? The same guy that "supports our troops" is happy to see them die for his face saving? And what his support looks like is that long caravan of coffins coming back to American families.

The Iraq Study Group suggested withdrawal by March of next year. Its time to get behind this bipartisan effort, confront Bush on ignoring the report and threaten with impeachment for non compliance.

We don't need your face saving, and instead some face slapping might be very appropriate.

So many lives so badly wasted, so many more to follow.

Bring 'em home.

I think it will take nothing short of a revolution or a coup to bring the war criminals to justice. There's not going to be an impeachment. I do however support the troops right to mutiny and desert in this illegal imperialist war. Disobey orders. Refuse to be cannon fodder for the rich exploiters. And let's support the Vermont secession movement, because if even ONE tiny little state like Vermont can legally, non-violently secede from the Union, it sets an historical precedent that could sent shock-waves across the country and around the world.

It's nice to know that the General has a firm grasp of the obvious. Perhaps now the "opposition" party will end its quarter of a century of letting the Republicans define the political discourse even when it means that people die. Hey, we might even see anti-war protestors not dragged off the floor of the next Democratic convention or consigned to a free-speech cage down the street like in 2004.

Surely the Democrats won't continue to sacrifice the lives of young people in a craven gambit of triangulation that keeps them ever so slightly to the left of the Republicans. Surely not!

Surely?

Ahhhh, who's kiddin' who?

Unless the failure of this war is connected with the failure of a government that led us into this war, it is doomed to be repeated (after all, this is a repeat of the Vietnam war and all the lies that led up to that war ie- Gulf of Tonkin incident is this war's 9/11).

The problem isn't troop strenght, the problem is that we invaded and occupied a country for the purpose of making it a 'colony' for strategic and economic control. I won't listen to anybody who won't admit that.

This war is wrong because it is wrong, not because we aren't winning it.

peace, justice, human rights for all

At a time when this country is sorely in need of wise counsel from elder statesmen, General Odom has stepped up to the plate offering the democrats a choice of real steps that they could take to get our soldiers out of danger in the civil war in Iraq. Odom deserves praise for his suggestions, and I wonder where the other elder statesmen are when we need them?

Supporting the troops also means taking care of them after service. As a medical institution, the VA is in need of money, and more every year. We all have read about the VA officials receiving tens of thousands in "bonuses", 3.8 million was quoted. Actually, the TOTAL figures for "RETENTION" (only) has risen to over $200 million since year 2000, I have the figures. Add in the "Special contribution" awards they give themselves each few monthes and you get a large chunk of change that could and should be going to care for our vets. Where I work we have one administrator who pocketed over $60 thousand in bonuses the last two years. Washington, all the way to the White House has known about this since I contacted them back in 2001 about this FRAUD. I'm only one voice. Sorry this got so long.

locust wrote:
"Personally, I shiver at the thought of Cheney/Bush having 300,000 more soldiers at their disposal."

They already do, locust: professional security corporations such as Blackwater, DynCorp and others.
See http://www.blackwaterbook.com/

I share your fear. Not because they will deploy to Iraq, but they will deploy here when Halliburton is done building its detention centers. I don't have the time to find out where those are being built, but they do plan to use them to detain US citizens. THeir locations should tip you off about where the next 'terrorist' attack by Bush bin Laden will occur.

With all respect to Lt. Gen. Odom, to leave Iraq naked - no military, no police, no air force or navy - surrounded by heavily armed neighbors drooling over the oil could be a problem. And US troop withdraw isn't going to help. We need to do what we always do - bribe other countries with a piece of the pie in exchange for their participation in a peacekeeping force, via NATO or the UN or whatever. A big one, not that little dinky band of bomb magnets in Afghanistan. And then, also like we always do, we draw down our troops until the rest of the bribed coalition realizes most of our fighters have split (except for our Air Force, naturally.)

Then Iraq will be guaranteed protection by others with "interests" in the "region." Too bad the Bush mafia hasn't actually studied how the mafia works: share the wealth, keep the peace.

If anybody has any responsibility for this, even though their effectiveness may be severely limited, they have a responsibility to:

1. find out what is happening in this world
2. either do, or not do, something about it

The first step is to find out, by sifting facts, reports, propoganda, opinion from as many sources as possible. This may, I lament, include mainstream sources (even the dull and ignorant, they too have their say).

Alamac is right, except we haven't heard much about Bush's Mars program since it was first announced (2004 question mark). Bush may have realized that, since Mars is not quite ready for habitation, he now has nowhere to hide.

I think most of us would rather NOT have terrorists. Unfortunately, a proper definition of "terrorism" has never been agreed upon (it keeps including the U.S. and its actions to date - that's why). The U.S. has not quite realized that they are terrorists.

Even if they don't realize this, the terrorists they are fighting cannot be fought using conventional or nuclear armies. They can only be fought by not doing the things that get them angry, and failing that, by using concerted global police and investigative work.

They will choose different methods to fight us "terrorists" (assuming the "us" versus "we" dichotomy so fashionable these days).

Ultimately, despite our differences in ideology, we will still have to come up with a method of actually surviving on the planet, a method that will allow us to continue our soldiering, and civilian-killing, raping, torturing, etc. while the floods, hurricanes and other human disasters are swirling about us.

This is hard to do on a dying planet, but I expect the "powers that be" (otherwise known as "the fools among us") will find a way.

The future seems to auger an era (for mere survival) where big-all-embracing Katrina-type government (mafias) will be replaced by small-scale community-type models that would optionally form alliances to counter large-scale (military, etc.) - type - threats. That is, more plastic structures, rather than immoveable monoliths, called nations.

The General is quite correct to focus his argument on the platitude of "supporting our troops." I think it's high time that we (and I include Canadians in this, as we have now begun the same platitudinous rhetoric) -- high time that we started questioning what all this silliness is about. I am currently reading Andrew Bacevich's *The New American Militarism* in which he interrogates this American love affair with the military as a consequence of the seduction of Americans by the propaganda of the "patriotic" Right. This "support the troops" crap is just a bone we toss to the soldiers who are dying so that we can go on shopping.

Look, if Jesus, Mohammad, Buddha, and the the ghost of John Wayne popped out of bush's pillow cushion and told him to get our of Iraq, if these deities pleaded before Congress and Senate to stop making war, stop polluting, and stop treating corporations as if they were people, and treating people like they don't matter. Give everyone health care, food to eat, shelter and a chance to learn. And there WILL be a limit on what any one person, company, or corporation can own, how much wealth they can accumulate and power they can yield. And we don't care if you call that communism, socialism, or whatever, we call it fair. If they went on and told us that it's stupid to have private banks, who's CEO's are unknown and unanswerable to anyone, to print our money and loan our money back to us at rates loan sharks would envy. Still nothing would change.

We don't have countries anymore. We have mega-multi-international-corporations (MMIC)that control governments that give us the illusion that we have a say in the affairs at hand. There is NOTHING democratic about a corporation.

Pelosi, Waxman, Conyers, aren't listening to us. They don't work for us. They're shills. The very few brave enough to stand-up to MMIC are marginalized or murdered. The MMIC owns or controls most of the government, the military, the police, the courts, the churches, the media, most of what you eat, drink, wear, drive and live. Until we stop buying their products, until we allow the people to have more power than all the corporations combined, instead of the other way around, and until we tear down the walls that have been built around our own humanity we're all fools in a prison of no walls.

General Odom's world view, while quite different than mine, has been speaking out forcefully against the invasion and occupation for quite a while. His other articles are worthwhile reading as well. His description of what has happened to American armed forces is accurate.

That he has the guts to say "Congress- withdrawl funds and if Bush doesn't assent to Congressional bill forwarded to him for withdrawal, then impeachment's the next step." Forthright.

Having heard General Taguba speak about his experience and treatment during the investigation of the military police at Abu Graib and read General Shinseki's remarks and those of other high level officers, it's clear that those in the military whose commitment to duty (however viewed) and honest appraisal of the situations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East and the enemies Bush has incited has been not only squandered but attacked.

Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence was an act of treason as it covered up the effort to out a US agent during a time of conflict, not for greater security reasons but to prevent the lies and distortion that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Powell and the neocon gang have perpetrated upon the American People. Thugs, criminals and theives will not stop until stopped.

The killing and damage done in Iraq and around the world in the name of the American people under Bush has been enormous and obscene.Many Americans and enough politicans need to get off their haunches and stand forcefully against the corporatist-neocon phalanx.

If we don't hold this organized criminal gang responsible, who are we to expect anything less than fury from the rest of the world? Having met people from lands and peoples grievously harmed by American-based greed and power based policies, the question should be, "Why don't they hate us more?"

Unfortunately, the only signal to some of those taking the ostrich position of the harm done will be when the troops come home injured in body, mind and spirit. And the bill will be severe.

To borrow and amend from Pete & Bruce, "If you want this land to be free, bring 'em home, bring 'em home." NOW!

Com_n_sense; You took the words right out of my mouth!

Another critically necessary step in supporting the troops is to get rid of all the mercenaries and the majority of the military contractors.

These so called security personnel and contractors are assumed to be U.S. military personnel by all the people they interact with in the world.

The military and U.S. reputation is based on the way all these people behave. Additionally, in an emergency hired hands can't be trusted. Will we shoot contractors for desertion as we have shot military people for abandoning their posts in an emergency? Commanders in the field need to have control of all aspects of their force to be safe and succeed in any mission.

The behavior of the military is always a concern in diplomacy. A bunch of loose cannon corporate mercenaries and contractors will do great harm.

To send troops into harms way for the frivilous reasons Bush did is the worst crime of all. He used our military for his own private purposes. He had no valid reason to invade Iraq. That is without a doubt the worst crime of all. He has asked these men to die for his own private cause. I don't see expanding the army or any other military branch while this nut case is in office. All he would do is squander that too like he has everything else he has touched. What really needs to happen is get him and his whole corrupt administration out of office. We can't wait for January of 2009. We can't take a chance that he will start another unnecessary war to salve his over-inflated ego. We can't just let his crimes go it's a matter of principle for us as a nation. We can't take a chance he will declare Martial Law or some other means to stay in office. He needs to be impeached as soon as possible. It should have been done when he invaded Iraq his last term. He should have never gotten elected again. But, I blame that on the ignorance of the American people and the media. I have not encouraged my military aged Grandson to join any branch of the service for that reason. I won't until something is done about this out-of-control President. He abuses the military worse than he does American citizen's.

Straight shooting. However how does one get someone else to do what they don't seem willing to do? How do you get congress to impeach or a media to bang the drums for it until they decide they will? All we have is public opinion and they are politicians i. e. those most ably skilled in saying what needs be said in such a way as to not require them to do anything concerning it. The enabler congress...more and more term limits seems smarter because it gets new blood and ideas rotating through congress. The status quo which enabled this bush no bid no oversight - cronyism driven disaster, betrayed us all. Bush/Cheney and co., status quo enabler congress and an artificially distinct 5 to 4 split in the high court ...have failed America but most of all they have failed those troops and we all know it. Yeah bush inept cronies pocketed billions but when they left with the cash...they left the troops there as targets to draw fire. Over there instead of here crap. How do we get this government of ours to become a democracy after it hasn't been one for so long? We were lied to by Feith and the OSP, by the whole administration and ditto for their supporters and though caught at the lies, they tell the men that they must stay and stay. A toast to the bleeding soldier then Bush Cronies. A toast with the $$$ billions you brought home. A toast Bush Cronies ... till the troops come home. The troops won this war in weeks. Bush inept corruption and sheer utter incompetence and agenda blinded decision making has left the troops defending an illusion with their lives. America needs to some house cleaning...the senate too. Shake up the status quo do nothing congress...get rid of the old and elect as many new ones as possible. What other chance have we? Look at what these long standing members have done...do you expect them to fix the problems they enabled? A politician will take credit for everything but will never admit to anything. We need new ones. America's last hope is other Americans. There has got to be more intelligent people to represent us than just them all these years. America's a big country. Americans are feeling betrayed by these last six years. Who is accountable for shedding blood on lies? America needs to answer.

I have an different idea:

Fuck the military

(challenge your love for the gun, America)

Bush will start removing the troops only after the Iraqi oil bill is signed - the bill that would give away Iraqi control of oil to the major oil companies. At the moment, it is looking as if some Iraqis have a backbone and are refusing. We should go home and let them solve their own problems.

neither party has any intention on leaving Iraq. they will be there for years to come..... OIL!

Just in from MSNBC:

"TUZ KHORMATO, Iraq - A suicide bomber detonated a truck full of explosives in the market of a Shiite farm town on Saturday, killing more than 100 people and levelling nearby mud-brick buildings, police officials said.

Separately, eight American troops and a British soldier were killed in fighting over two days."

And this right after the Three Stooges - Graham, McCain and Lieberman - marvelled at the remarkable "progress" of the "surge." Stooges they may be, but it's time to start thinking about war crimes indictments. Tack on a high treason indictment for Lieberman as he is an agent of a foreign government.

The last paragraph says it all for me, what this war is ALL about

"The final step should be to put that president on notice that if ignores this legislative action and tries to extort Congress into providing funds by keeping U.S. forces in peril, impeachment proceeding will proceed in the House of Representatives. Such presidential behavior surely would constitute the "high crime" of squandering the lives of soldiers and Marines for his own personal interest."

This war is for his (Bush) own personal initerest, and that my folks is just embarrassing, shameful, discomfiting and very upsetting that he the president of the most powerful nation in the world would abuse his power for his own personal interest. How crazy were those who voted for him in the first place?!#?!

Perhaps General Odom was foolish to vote for Bush several years ago, but his current position on the Iraq war -- and how to stop it -- is as clear and concise as any I've seen. Would that any of my Congressional delegation from New Mexico had the wisdom and courage to follow General Odom's example. I share the frustration of most commentators; but when we gain another prominent public figure in our common struggle to stop the war and restore a functioning democracy in this badly damaged polity of ours, would we not do best to welcome this man rather than tear him down?

I'd love to reply to the blog by BcDErick but will hold my fingers and temper. Stupidity is as blissful as ignorance.

One comment, General Odom suggests we expand our army to two or three times it's present level. Hmmm. Good luck.

Since there are a very large number of junior officer leaving the army in disgust, and the truth of what is occuring with our troops is subject matter for all to hear. (words and publishings, the truth, put forth by many other generals and by returning troops.) I wonder how difficult it is going to be, to build our forces without a draft even if congress approved such action?

When our generals state that our military is broken, they should know, they've been there and have walked the walk. If Bush now attacks Iran, our army is going to be in bigger trouble. Well,___ all of us will be.

Along with a proper definition of "support" for the troops, we also need a proper defintion of "enemy." Yossarian in Catch 22 has the best one I've seen:

'The enemy,' retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, 'is anyone who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart.'

Damn, these assholes are just as courageous now as they were in Vietnam!! I mean the militaries brASS that is!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God damn where was this f'ing spine and hutzpah when you were active duty A-HOLE?!?! I hope there is a special place in hell for these guys who never said a word except "yes sir!" back in 2003 when the lies were being built for the excuse to sieze the oil fields of Iraq for Halliburton with the US military at tax payer expense. Never mind the lives of the soldiers. Bring them home yes, but those complicit in the troops being sent on a business deal for Halliburton need to be drawn and quartered at the very least.

One of our biggest concerns must be the consolidation of the media by the mega corps. which are typlically ran by the right wing.When you look at the various media outlets and the impact they have on framming the issue it is very difficult for anti war message to be viewed other than unpatriotically.The democrates have been silent on the issue of media consolidation for fear it might neg. impact their chances of election.

What most am Americans don't understand, Bush crime family supports our troops coming home inbody bags. What else can a _SERIAL killer do. Lets start a pool on body count for the day the war ends, 48,000-Korea,50,000-Veitnam, 3,400 Iraq and counting. Guess the right number and win the Bush's war profits.

General I would like to personally thank you for your time and thoughts on this matter. As it is near and dear to my heart as I have two very god friends who are deployed at this time.

Sir, it is nice to hear a man with such vast experience as yourself embrace the concept of defunding to force the hand of this shameful president.

On veterans day there was a group of individuals who were harrassed for stating these same sentiments by wearing a t-shirt that said "Support the Troops End the War" at a parade. After reading your post and the comments that follow I see that John Edwards has gain much support in his efforts of demanding that this congress send this bill back again and again to force this issue and enforce the will "of the people".

Again "thank you" general.

The Democrats in Congress comitted political suicide when they passed they latest war appropriations bill in the name of "Supporting the Troops". It's boggling that they can't find the nerve to counter this silly rhetorical trick.

Too bad they didn't try introducing their own "support the troops" funding bill, with some explicit instructions as to how the funds would be appropriated. That was their big chance. They could have said they support the troops by saying some of the money is explicity for military healthcare system reform, so we don't have any more Walter Reed-like messes. Or that they support the troops by guaranteeing them stable predictable periods of deployment and home station time, thereby --GASP-- forcing the military high commands to think long-term and plan appropriately for operations, giving candid assessments of what they need in terms of man-power. They could have lent their support to the troops by giving the troops pay raises and reenlistment incentives, while at the same time terminating contracts with private security (mercenary) firms like Blackwater. The ridiculously high salaries of security contractors, coupled with their lawlessness and lack of accountability are a larger, more visible, and dare I say more detrimental morale killer to our troops in theater than any half-baked attempt by Congress to hold this administration accountable (this isn't speculation, either. I was there. I saw it, and everywhere I went, I heard the grumblings.)

It's nice to see yet another good-soldier general doing the right thing and denouncing this war from the safety of retirement. It's a shame you couldn't honor your oath to defend us against all enemies foreign AND DOMESTIC while you were in an advantageous position to do so. No doubt your current replacements will share their empathy and concern more vocally once they know their pensions are secure, too. That's courage for you.

Fear of the UCMJ and loss of personal fortune is letting our generals buy their retirements with the blood of our youth, and these conveniently-timed crises of conscience are really starting to sicken me.