Time: Firing the Wrong General

[UpInArms]

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1595473,00.html

As the Iraq war prepares to enter its fifth year — a war that the Bush administration and its backers contended would be a cakewalk — the first senior military officer has finally had to walk the plank for screwing up.

But critics who have been long calling for some accountability aren't likely to be appeased. The officer taking the fall, after all, wasn't Tommy Franks, the Army general who as chief of Central Command scuttled Anthony Zinni's more robust war plan and agreed with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that invasion-lite was the way to go. Nope, he got the Presidential Medal of Freedom. So did former CIA chief George ("Slam Dunk") Tenet and L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer, who as Iraqi viceroy fired the entire Iraqi army, a move now widely seen as laying the groundwork for a sustained insurgency.

And it wasn't the fellow who replaced Franks, John Abizaid, a fine Army officer by all accounts but one who also stressed the need for a "light footprint" inside Iraq that merely dragged out the death and dying on both sides. He'll retire soon to praise and pension. And General George Casey, Abizaid's underling and overall commander inside Iraq for the past 30 months, has just won promotion to Army chief of staff.

That's why the firing of Major General George Weightman — the guy running Walter Reed Army Medical Center for the past six months — seems so out of line. The Army brass ousted him 10 days after the Washington Post exposed the squalid living conditions — and lassez-faire attitude from hospital staff — that many outpatients experienced. Weightman was replaced, at least temporarily, by Lieutenant General Kevin Kiley, the commander of U.S. Medical Command. But there are two things wrong with that, Army insiders say. Weightman was actually trying to fix problems that arose during the tenure of his predecessor in the job — and that man was none other than Kiley.

...more...

[acmavm]

1. In a sane country this would seem to be extremely bizarre

behavior. Here is Neocon-land, its pretty par for the course.

[Hand]

2. Trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube.

For once it looks like they won't be able to pull it off. When Time magazine comes out with an article like this, one can avoid feeling encouraged.

CYA may just not work this time. I saw Kiley flaunting the new paint and wallpaper and making all sorts of BS statements shortly after the Post articles came out--doesn't look like anyone's buying it. One can only hope it's true--the human cost of this shameful neglect is beyond calculation. :cry:

[ninkasi]

3. Has there ever been

a more incompetent administration in the history of this country? I can't think of any, myself. Massive corruption, loss of civil liberties, and crushing debt seems to be what the Bush legacy is. Of course, we can also add torture, spying on citizens, waging immoral wars on countries which didn't strike first, to his list of failures. Dubya, monumental screw-up, and worst president ever.

For all their babble about "supporting the troops," now they have placed the man most responsible for the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed in charge of the whole mess. Could it get any worse?

[theaudacity]

4. We should fire his Commander-in-Chief instead. nt

[youngdem]

5. Outrage fatigue setting in, but this line makes my blood boil and is so perfectly Bushco behavior

But there are two things wrong with that, Army insiders say. Weightman was actually trying to fix problems that arose during the tenure of his predecessor in the job — and that man was none other than Kiley.


Sickening. And people have the audacity (or stupidity) to say Democrats don't support the troops.

[w4rma]

6. Weightman had only been there for 6 months and was trying to fix the problems caused by the guy Bush

replaced him with. :argh:

I utterly despise this administration. I hold the people who support them in contempt.

[BootinUp]

10. So predictable

for the Bush regime. Certainly pisses me off all the same.

[Usrename]

7. Doin' a heck of a job..

:nuke:

[donkeyotay]

8. Kind of reminds me of Abu Ghraib, how the boots on the ground

got sent to prison, while bushco denied that torture was their policy, claiming instead that those carrying out the torture policy were "bad apples."

Later, the junta admitted that they had secretly legalized torture and rendition, but they were never held accountable for it.

Neocons create reality. It's up to us to hold them accountable.

[havocmom]

9. Fire the guy who was cleaning up the mess = trying to LOOK like fixing problem

while just putting lipstick on a pig. In this case, the pig is the chap who let the place get into such a mess in the first place.

But since too many won't get past the headline, America will think justice has been served; somebody got the ax.

Up to us to keep yammering until all America knows the wrong guy got slammed. The noise machine sure as hell won't go into depth on this one. There will be some other distraction all too soon.

[truthisfreedom]

11. Incompetence is the one thing this administration are EXPERTS at. There has never been an admin

that could even hold a candle to the level of incompetence that our present one has spectacularly soared to... eagle-like and self-righteous beyond description. In the end, they'll all award themselves Presidential Medals of Freedom and the highest accolades for their brave incompetence in the face of blistering, scathing criticism and the undeniable truth... and then they'll reward themselves with the cash they dumped out of the US Treasury into their bag-men's waiting pockets.

Come to think of it, they awarded themselves the Presidency without winning an election, twice. They're really a sort of incompentence- and lie-based mertitocracy!

[UpInArms]

12. it's hard for me to decide if they are

just malicious or intentionally malicious.