Thanks, Souixrose, with my disabled left hand typing that post took quite some time, and it does my heart good to hear 'keyboard applause' for the effort. BTW, I believe the appropriate term is 'social Darwinist' in relation to Norquist. I'm not sure what the correct term is for anti-social types without a sense of decency, honor, conscience, or compassion, but I think turd will suffice. Maybe this is why Karl Rove's nickname is "Turd Blossom", although 'Blooming Idiot' will work equally well I think :-)

PAUL MAGILL SMITH: Great work! Your lists are pretty close to perfection! (And I've been keeping tabs of my own.) I wonder if you or WE (CD) could find funding to have them printed in a major newspaper... Kansas comes to mind. Maybe you could reference it as the "medicine" for "What's Wrong With Kansas"? Or send the list to Washington Journal at C-span.

You sure covered all bases... the level of depravity and depraved indifference to everything that matters is beyond the pale. You seem to think Grover Norquist just believes in a government model that involves prudence or conservative measures... the guy is a heartless hatemonger. He knows that model puts handicaped people, widows, and the mentally ill out on the street. He has a CRUEL worldview, an adaptation of Darwin's "Survival of the Fittest" applied to what Jesus termed "The least of these."

I could see a mockery of his approaching the so-called gates of heaven or hell (Christian world view) when he passes over and being forced to remain in eternity with only a copy of "A Christmas Carol" to keep him company.

> Iraq requires a minimum of 550,000 troops.

Which he'll argue he has. Do a search on the manual for "1000" ("force ratio" didn't work) and a paragraph comes up with this: "A better force requirement gauge is troop density, the ratio of security forces (including the host nation's military and police forces as well as foreign counterinsurgents) to inhabitants. " It's not the number of US military. It's the number of mercenaries, US troops, coalition troops, and locals.

Any war supporter will gladly tell you that Iraq is a resounding, hands down, no question about it, success. They'll add the numbers up and show that Petraeus has more then enough.

Not going to list the reasons that's bogus because it's preaching to the choir. It's not as simple as counting US troops though.

It does point to why despite all the bluster out of Washington D.C., we're not in a position to attack Iran. We do that, we start off a chain of events that will 'force' us to occupy, at which point we'll be short a million+ soldiers for COIN in Iran. And that's just short term, gotta remember to multiply by 3 to account for rotations. I'm sure war supporters will claim we really don't need that many and besides we'll just hire some more Blackwater contractors, twist arms for some "Coalition" troops, and fill the rest in with locals. A recipe for success for sure.

Jacob Freeze___Amen to your post. There will be no "winning" in Iraq or Afganistan now as we missed whatever chance we had long ago. "Get the hell out" sounds good to me and put Bush and Cheny over there to finish up until they can "stand down".

Kem___ I think it is Eisenhower.

How do you spel Eisenhour?

It never ceases to amaze me, how some people get where they get. When I was in the service, we had a saying that often seemed to be so accurate and true for more than a few.___ "Fuck up and move up".

Betrayus reminds me of another general we had during WW-2, who had married into a very influential family. ___Dwight D. Eisenhour. Like Betrayus, Ike was quietly chastised by his high ranking commander also. Not near as bad as Betrayus was however.

Eisenhour was just plain lucky that "D" Day was a success. Actually the only thing that was well planned was the supply chain. It was the brave actions of a few fighiting men that saved the day and Ike's ass there. If it hadn't been for the stupidity of Hitler, it easily could have been another Dunkirk. It's a damn good thing Hitler wasn't assinated by his generals.

General Douglas MacArthur when asked of Ike's abilities as a tactician and commander, said only this. ___ "He was a good clerk." He didn't elaborate. Anyway, as we all know, Eisenhour had his sights set on the White House, as does Betrayus.

Generals for the vast majority are selfish, vain, prima-donnas, who live entirely within their own mental world and are so very much better than anyone whom they out-rank and they out-rank ALL civilians of course. Just read the books they have written about themselves.

It's amazing how their serious personality flaws come through so clearly. Even Omar Bradley, the "Soldiers General" was a vain prima donna. Betrayus wouldn't make a pimple on any of the asses of the generals I mentioned.

Ok, we've seen the winners (or a number of them anyway) so let's take a look at the losers Petraeous is complicit in putting in that column:

1) The World, for starters, because by supporting this errant fool of a president, vice president, Sec of State, & neo-CON cabal, with their illegal concept of pre-emptive war, Petraeus has shown himself guilty of crimes against humanity, which includes ALL humans on this planet. Another crime against humanity is the approval to use & continued use of the radiological WMD of depleted uranium since the 'collateral' victims in the civilian population will eventually far surpass the actual number of enemy combatants.

2) America (our infrastructure) and Americans (our people). After the tragic loss of 3,000 Americans on 911, are Americans, who bravely opened up a whole new hostile continent, sent the most powerful army in the world packing during the Revolutionary War, suffered a million dead brothers in the Civil War, and turned the Imperial Germans & Japanese back into their ruined countries to re-consider their sadistic militaristic intent to rule the world, to grovel before a failed business & political leader just on a promise of safety, when the event is highly suspect, and very apparently contrived by this same criminal cabal? Come on folks, we're actually of a lot stronger metal than this administration would propagandize us into believing.

3) Over 4,000 dead members of our military, and by latest count many more seriously wounded than the military is reporting (their latest figure for soldiers attempting suicide was less than 1,000 for all of 2007, but now we have discovered the true figure is about 1,000 PER MONTH, so who in their right mind would believe the Pentagon about ANY statistics? Does anyone recall the report issued the day before 911 stating the military couldn't account for $2.3 Trillion in money or war materials; that story was conveniently buried in the rubble of events the next day. Coincidence? Hmmm)

4) America's social safety nets that took six decades to build and/or put in place. Grover Norquist and his cohorts just don't quite grasp with a nation as large & complexed as ours there is the necessity of a fairly good sized government. Sure, there will be some waste & corruption, but that's why oversight, transparency, & accountability are necessary. What can his ilk brag about...the reality of borrow & spend has replaced tax & spend accusations, a failed economy, massive scandalous business models due to de-regulation, foreclosures en masse from the 'ownership' society proponents, record deficits & balance of trade, war without end amen, highest national debt in history, highest personal debt in history (last year people charged more than they earned nationally), record gas prices, food prices skyrocketing, a trickle of lost jobs becoming a flood, our manufacturing base decimated, vast systemic income disparity? What the hell do these neo-CON's (new con men) have to brag about?

5) The US Constitution and all the good things it has stood for in this country for about a couple hundred years, as well as its root document the Magna Carta. Man, the founding fathers are shouting at us from their graves, "How in the world could you let someone take habeas corpus away from you after we fought & died to get it?" Instead of working so hard, citizens anyway not that sham of a complicit congress, why don't you see about impeaching some members of the Supreme Court?

6) Our environment. Controls & systems were put in place to protect us, but they've been dismantled or replaced with industry friendly people adverse systems only a carnival three-card monty flim flam man would have the nerve to speak out loud.

7) Honest fair elections. Why, in a public vote, should a private company (like Deibold) have the rights to the code/technology our elections are held under? They shouldn't, DAMMIT! End of discussion. Period.

8) The 70% of the population that have no real wealth (just quoted on MSNBC by Bill Moyers in an interview with Keith Olberman). Although a bit of a nut case Ross Perot sounded the alarm about the perils of excessive wealth disparity years ago. Well, we're here now, folks. Havin' fun yet?

9) The 2 million plus inmates in this country, and especially the near 1 million arrested yearly on pot charges, while alcohol & tobacco kill far more people yet are approved by government people on a federal, state, and local level because of revenue.

10) Rational sensible energy policy.

More added to this later after I finish gagging a bit at the 'State of our Union'

Time for a reality check, folks, very similar to the reality one gains viewing at the wrong end of a loaded shotgun wielded by a maniac. Who are the 'winners' of the Iraq fiasco, and who are the 'losers'...hmmm, let's see:

1) Of course the monopolistic oil companies, with crude at almost $128 a barrel, when even the top executives in these companies admit the actual worth is $50-55 per barrel;

2) Vampire/predatory capitalist speculators in the oil market...see above;

3) Cheney, Bush I & II, Rice and all the other oil driven neo-CONs in this administration who rule 'for' themselves, but not 'for' the people;

4) The Military Industrial Complex, from the seriously over-funded military (estimates of our military spending, including items hidden in other agency budgets, are as high as $1.2 Trillion per year), to the corporate manufacturers of items used by the military.

5) The Carlyle Group, one of the largest private companies providing arms around the world, and once headed by Bush I...so much for "Kinder gentler", or 'compassionate conservatism'.

6) The private banks that own the mis-named 'Federal' Reserve System, since the higher the/our federal debt goes the more interest income they make...and they always take their cut (read usury here) first. This is hundreds of billions yearly that would be in the taxpayers' pockets if we controlled our own money supply, or at least not in the hands/pockets of greedy private bankers;

7) The Rothschilds, Rockefellers, et al, who have funded both sides of conflicts for over a hundred years, and who own these banks that make it impossible for Americans to get out of debt;

8) The Republican party, since by using the Nazi propaganda tool of making the public overly fearful they were able to make the 2000 & 2004 elections close enough that through electronic vote total manipulation they were able to steal the majority;

9) Osama Bin Laden, since by the stupid (and illegal) actions of this administration he is able to raise worldwide legions of radical fundamentalist/secular terrorists he could only have wished for in his wildest dreams before this administration's foolish heavy-handed tactics made the USA seen as the world's most dangerous rogue nation of terrorists. Thanks, Georgie, 'doin' a heck of a job' there boy. Regardless whether you let 911 happen, caused it to happen, or were just asleep at the switch (or drunk, or stoned), the good will of the world was completely reversed by your arrogance & foolish policies. As a person, with almost 400 years of family born in this country, I publicly now serve notice to the rest of the world George Walker Bush does not speak for me, or the majority of Americans. Do we owe the world an apology?...definitely! Will they get it from these inmates in charge of the asylum? (the Bush administration & their cronies)...very doubtful.;

10) Blackwater, KBR/Haliburton, Bechtel, etc, and all the other leeches attached to the teat known as the US Treasury...…winners all, for now anyway.;

11) The US nuclear power industry, which found a way to get rid of some of the nuclear waste piling up from nuclear plants, by almost giving it to the military, who convert it into the Orwellianly mis-named depleted uranium (DU still has 40% of its radioactive content), now being fired in projectiles contaminating the middle east, our own soldiers, and through wind currents the entire world (BTW, international law/treaty recognizes DU as a radiological WMD...who are the most threatening terrorists again?);

12) Jackasses who keep getting promotions based on connections rather than being shunned or demoted for repeated failures (Bush, Wolfowitz, & Petraeus prime examples, but sadly there are many others);

13) Isreali Zionists, because they got a big dumb ass America to come to the middle-east and be their bully for them, AND receive billions yearly in American taxpayer funds to spend without accountability.

14) American fundamentalist Christian Zionists because they can continually fleece their flocks of funding on the too often repeated myth of 'Armageddon draws near'. Have they ever considered creating a heaven on earth instead of aiding in the destruction of it through hellish man-made means, and dragging along millions/billions of innocent people on their fool's errand based on a few archaic scribblings of someone?, somewhere?, sometime?, far too long ago to be appropriate today?

15) The Main Stream Media, since through the spin, lies, distortion & obfuscation of facts they now have gained control of the minds of Americans, thwarted truth, twisted the electoral process into a dog & pony show having nothing to do with true democratic principles, consolidated into an egregious monopoly, and made fortunes from the airwaves they don't own, but rent from ALL Americans. By controlling the airwaves they assure candidates are 'selected' rather than elected, and can effectively block any candidates who threaten their hegemony. Those who don't pander to the MSM's self-demanded right to control the agenda are excluded from participation. This is a worldwide phenomenon, and perhaps the greatest threat to real democratic principles globally, but American media is the pathfinder in this attempt at world financial & political control.

16) When Henry Kissinger proposed the top priority of American foreign policy should be to de-populate the world by 2 billion people, especially in the middle-east because of resources (read...OIL) there, he should have been laughed out of the room. Instead the psychos in that administration raptly listened, and he even received a Nobel Peace Prize. This speaks ill of the Nobel selection committee, the administration involved, and any other administration considering him an agent for peace around the world. While I agree this world is over-populated (unless everyone is offered an equal opportunity to the basics of food, shelter, clothing, & medical attention when needed), means to reduce the population through depleted uranium usage, constant warfare in hot spot areas , starvation from using food for fuel, pollution of the environment causing senseless deaths, hundreds of millions dying when the effects of global warming are fully realized, engineered pandemics, genocide, fratricide, & homicide are not the answers. What is moral about doing these things, and then denigrating the moral stance of those who believe condoms, RU-486, and abortion (of a fetus who cannot feel pain because the central nervous system making them capable of even feeling pain doesn't develope until the 22nd week of pregnancy), offer a more humane path to ZPG (Zero Population Growth)? Yet Kissinger is in the winner's column just like the 'Final Solution' was supposed to be a winner for the Nazis. Was it?

See my next post for the 'losers' in this tragic reality.

It's been obvious all along that we bit off more than we could chew in Iraq. The war was planned along Rumsfeldian-Wolfowitzian lines in the teeth of prudent military advice, not to mention international law and common sense, and we're now in a horrendously costly quagmire as a result. The whole enterprise was and is based on deeply flawed assumptions and theories emanating from putative intellectuals on the right. But in what sphere of public life--military, economic, constitutional, environmental, health care, educational, scientific--have the neocons ever been correct? Their ideas have always and everywhere proved disastrous. How any sentient being could even contemplate voting for McCain or most Republican congressional candidates is utterly beyond comprehension.

What the late Col. David Hackworth called a "perfumed prince."

Petraeus is a perfect example of "The Peter Principle". I remember it well, since when I was still in the work force, most of my bosses were examples of it, also.
In case you younger people don't know it: The Peter Principle - One rises to his own level of incomptence.
Petraeus has risen one too many times.

"The intent was to create a political situation in which we would stay, month by incremental month, until Bush was gone. Then someone else would have to withdraw."

maybe, maybe not. maybe the intent is exactly as it looks, to stay 100 years, as long as there is a drop of oil and as long as israel feels safer with an american military presence in the middle east

i don't know if mr. beinhart was deliberately being funny, but i laughed till i cried at this article.............

Beinhart writes "The goal of the surge was (1) to bring stability so that (2) Iraqi political progress could be made and (3) Iraq's police and military forces could stand up."

Granting just for the sake of argument that those stated reasons were the real reasons, who could seriously argue that there's more stability in Iraq today than there was in December of 2006, when Bush announced the escalation? How can it be plausibly maintained that adding US-subsidized, former insurgent armed "Sunni Awakening" militias into the domestic political mix in Iraq, while simultaneously getting Shiite militia factions to wage war against one another, constitutes progress? In what coherent sense can it be claimed that when the Maliki regime's police and military were routed in their March attacks upon Basra (and had to be bailed out by US air power) that this failed offensive could be labeled a success?

Like the original invasion itself and the ongoing occupation of Iraq, the stated (and unachieved) goals for General Petraeus's surge were themselves a bogus propaganda exercise.

The real goal of the surge was (1) to temporarily lower casualties on all sides so that (2) all sectarian factions could regroup and retrench militarily into enclaves with an eye towards future civil warfare while (3) the US occupation forces pursue a divide and conquer strategy creating the illusion that there's still light at the end of Uncle Sam's tunnel, and George Bush runs out the clock on his second term.

Measured by this genuine standard, the surge counterinsurgency strategy can claim modest success over there, and enormous success over here, if and only if the Sadr City and other battlefield news blackouts can be finessed through the fall while John McCain sells voters the GOP's repackaged snake oil.

Bill from Saginaw

Beinart's point has been obvious for a long time. Bush even admitted he wanted to not win a war, but be President during one.

Interestingly enough, 0.5M troops might be enough if they knew how to counter the insurgency. The reality is few have any significant training to do so. The MHAT report reveals many are psychologically unfit to do so. Instead, they are trained to combat armies; with lack of an enemy army, they have chosen the Iraqi civilian population as their enemy. Much of the problem has to do with expectations: the US military believes it is the job of the Iraqi people to sustain the casualties, not US troops, and it feels its troops are too wimpy to put up with a single lengthy deployment the way most of the Iraqi population has done. If troops were sent over with the requirement they die before civilians, and they don't get to go home if they don't succeed in pacifying the country, and they are expected to speak Arabic, and so on, they might have a chance.

Does this sound like the way that the brave men and women who are fighting for our country's security should be treated?

"In Camp Ar Ramadi, we often ran out of water. When our water tanks ran out, we were told we'd have to wait for KBR to come and empty out the bad water and refill our non-potable water. Some days the water smelled like sulfur, other days it smelled like straight sewage. They told us to make sure we kept our mouths closed in the showers when we complained about the smell. I can't count the number of days I left the showers feeling dirtier than when I went in and many others shared those feelings. I know many soldiers used the water for brushing their teeth or shaving and others even used it for coffee and hot chocolate."

I don't think so, and neither does Rachel, the former soldier who provided this first hand account of the dangerous negligence that results from the complete lack of accountability for private contractors like KBR and Blackwater.

Rachel approached us and is ready to tell her very moving and provocative story of the contractor abuses she witnessed -- everything from abominable pay discrepancies to unsafe water to electrocution due to KBR's bad wiring.

I hope you'll join us for a very special blog series featuring Rachel's story. The series will be in 5 parts, Monday through Friday of next week, on our blog, Building a Progressive Future. You can subscribe to our blog through the RSS feed to stay updated on Rachel's story and more developments on contractor behavior. Click here to subscribe: http://progressivefuture.org/blog.rss

You probably won't be that surprised to hear about the things that Rachel witnessed -- people in progressive, active circles have been talking about this serious issue for a while now. But this story has been so buried in the media that the average American doesn't realize how widespread and severe the negligence really is. In fact, Rachel has been pressured and manipulated into keeping her story out of the media. This blog series gives us the opportunity to make this story accessible and available to everyone -- not in the form of a dissociated news story, but in the words of a former soldier who saw it with her own eyes. I hope you'll invite your friends and family to read Rachel's story as well; you can click here to spread the word: http://www.progressivefuture.org/contractor-accountability/rachel

Thank you for your support, and we hope you'll join us for this special event.

You can read the US military's new counterinsurgency manual that Beinhart notes General Petraeus went back to the US to rewrite, or you can see below some of the Foreword to Field Guide to Revolution, while the entire work is in the process of being written, inspired in part by popular will and liberatory tendencies and by the U.S. Military Counterinsurgency Manual, December 2006:

Field Guide to Revolution

with special thanks to
The U.S. Military Counterinsurgency Manual, December 2006

FOREWORD

This field guide for liberation is designed to fill a revolutionary gap. It has been too long since the Americas have had at hand a sweeping manual for liberation. With the people fighting corporate and state governments and other counterrevolutionary (CORE) entities and forces throughout the hemisphere, and beyond, it is essential that we, the peoples of the Americas, conceive and distribute a handbook that provides principles and guidelines for liberatory revolution (LIBREV) throughout the Americas, and beyond. Such guidance must be grounded in historical studies. However, it also must be informed by contemporary experiences.

This manual takes a general approach to liberation and revolution, in describing LIBREV operations against the mendacious and malicious entities that are counterrevolutionary, or CORE, forces. The people recognize that every struggle for liberty is contextual and presents its own set of challenges. We cannot fight current corporate and state tyranny, whether of neoliberal, neoconservative, or other tendencies, the exact way we fought Nazis, Stalinists, corporate-state and other CORE forces of the past. The application of principles and fundamentals to deal with any of these inevitably varies. Nonetheless, all mendacious entities, all CORE forces, even today's highly adaptable corporate-state strains, remain essentially wars against the people. They use variations of standard themes and adhere to elements of a recognizable reactionary and essentially status quo campaign plan, tending to utter despotism.

This manual therefore addresses the common characteristics of these mendacious entities, these counterrevolutionary forces. It strives to provide those conducting LIBREV campaigns with a solid foundation for understanding and addressing specific counterrevolutionary forces. A liberatory revolutionary campaign is, as described in this manual, a mix of offensive, defensive, and stability operations conducted along multiple lines of operations. It requires corevolutionaries (COREVS) to employ a mix of familiar actions and skills often associated with effective popular liberatory movements and with genuinely free, just, and equitable societies wherever they have appeared in some part....
http://apragmaticpolicy.wordpress.com/2008/05/11/field-guide-to-revolution/

this article states that the general has failed in his mission. that is true if the objective was to quell all resistance, rehabilitate the country and restore civic order. however if the objective is to merely hold raq,secure the oil and support a dependant govt, then the mission may be a success. we speculate on, but do not know the true objective - the stated vs the true goal.
furthermore ideal ratios of soldiers to population are drawn from historical inferences. as each situation is different in the details, this ratio will obviously differ in different situations. ie somalia, vietnam, lebanon, raq and afghanistan are all different.and this is confirmed by the fact that the grim situation in afghanistan is still a lot better than the grimmer still situation in iraq - afghanistan with a larger population, land mass and far fewer troops than in iraq.
so the questioning should question results and efficacy of strategy and not ratios of troops to civilians.
furthermore, questioning by the congress has lost all meaning. by choosing not to exercise its constitutional authority, it has, barring a few souls, abdicated its responsibility. why blame the general for 'failure' when they, the congress, is unwilling to accept any responsibility - such as declaration of war, funding the war, limiting untrammeled executive power?

There is frequently a labeling of someone who serves the System well as "brilliant", even though the evidence points elsewhere. Paul Wolfowitz, e.g., the "genius", has been consistently wrong at a spectacular level.

Petraeus hasn't failed! He is training Iraq's police and Army so that they can stand up and we can stand down. In another 50-75 years you'll see that all is well! Maybe sometime in the 22nd century our troops will be able to come home.

Oil at $126 a barrel. US controlled Iraq pulls in 70 billion in oil sales. Exxon (nee Rockefeller), Cheney etc are happy. Mission Accomplished.

Petraeus or no, we'll leave when the oil runs dry.

This neocon bunch has so much clout in the publishing & media world as to truly create a SEPARATE (albeit false) reality. When TENET was given a medal (what was it freedom?) for LYING to help FIX the case for war (he knew about the cover-up and alteration of data); or "heckuva job" Brownie, added to all the loyalists without true resumes given power positions by these authoritarians, what they want are pseudo-credentialed (or just show up and WE have the power to credential you!) YES-men... as if that type of sell-out accords with bravery or courage or honor or decency or integrity. A sell out is a sell out and eventually the truth does get out there!

To see through the fog read General Smedley Butler's book, WAR IS A RACKET. Although half a century old, it will help you see through the fog. You won't see a pretty picture, just the facts.
Hoa binh

"Now you will be in charge of two wars in which the key to success is training troops and police so that they can care for themselves."

What is Larry Beinhart talking about? There is no "key to success" for a foreign army in Afghanistan or Iraq.

There's no "key to success," but at least there's a "key to survival," and it's the same for us as it was for the Russians and the British and every other occupying power in those nightmare countries.

The "key to survival" is getting the hell out of there, and every other "key" is just another delusion.

Thank you, thank you, thank you Larry.

After prolonged exposure to the endless spin of the MSM, the truth is so refreshing to hear.

Betrayus is building the perfect resume to be the Republican nominee for the 2016 election to succeed President McClone.

The fog of war is real. It covers the citizenry with ignorance, the soldiers with insanity, and exchanges of money with confusion.

In confusion there is profit.

Petraeus the ultimate politician's general who will say whatever the Administration wants to hear. He has political ambitions and we can't wait to have him goose-stepping across our political land-scape.

Remember - Iraq would be a 'cake-walk' (because of the 'Arab Mind', the Arabs cannot fight or sustain a resistance, there is 'no such thing as an Iraqi nation', the 'Arabs are all tribal', one 'well-placed bomb would destroy the Arab street'...all racist nonsense procalimed by the Neo-Con ideologues but founded in centuries of US and European imperialism and polished up by Israeli racist colonialism)

Remember - the Vietnamese were peasants who couldn't put up a sustained resistance, couldn't make sacrifices and had no sense of a nation...General Petraeus plagerized from the counter-insurgency garbage of General Cleighton Abrams of Indochina fame)

Remember - the 'Slavs' were untermenschen and unable to sustain a defense against the Nazis...even the West encouraged Hitler to turn his army of conquest toward the east to destroy the USSR...and the USSR, composed of 'inferior races'..., devoured over 2/3 of the best of the German Wehrmacht and delivered the rest to the 'victorious' armies of the West.

It is hard not to burst out laughing whenever that little be-medalled lick-spittle general marches out to the oohs and aahs of the brown-nosing media and the arm chair warrior congressmen... Considering the immense suffering million of precious Iraqi men, women and children have endured at the hands of Petraeus, he should be handed over to the Iraqis once they liberate their nation and begin the arduous process of bringing the war criminals and collaboraters to justice. The man is a sick joke and an insult to the scores of far more honorable officers who resigned rather than suck up to Administration and its desastrous war.