2003 Year in Review

Old Generals Never Die...

Old generals never die they just show up as analysts on television. The present war in Iraq has forced network and cable news programmers to reach back in recent American combat in search of talking heads to fill the twenty-four hour coverage. Any retired officer above the rank of Colonel, really, can get immediate employment as a battlefield analyst. I suppose, if they could, the news networks would hire the disinterred remains of Ulysses S. Grant to analyze the war situation.

These military analysts praise or criticize the progress of the war based on their own time in the military. They fail to realize that after being out of the military for five or more years, they just might not be adequately aware on the latest military strategy and tactics. They might not be privy to the latest technological innovations in weaponry – e.g., the incredible advances in targeting and the pinpoint accuracy of advanced Patriot and Cruise missiles. They are out of the loop, so to speak. But that doesn’t stop them from pontificating about all facets of the Iraqi operations and second guessing every battlefield maneuver.

With their high-tech etch-a-sketch boards, multimedia software, laser pointers, and studio war rooms, these masters of the classroom battlefield use their expertise to chart the course of the advancing armies. Egged on by commentators who know even less, these studio strategists endlessly, repetitively, retrace the movements of our troops, and throw out suppositions based on nothing more than speculation. In one such show of abject journalism, Forrest Sawyer on CNBC encouraged a general to speculate that the western advance of coalition forces was too fast and spontaneous. Such a rapid advance surely would stretch the supply lines too thin, giving ad hoc forces like the Faydayeen Saddam opportunity to wreak havoc and cut the lines in the rear, thus leaving the advancing armies isolated and vulnerable to attacks from Saddam’s Medina armored units.

Not to be outdone, Aaron Brown on CNN worked diligently with his studio warriors to concoct a scenario in which the low-tech forces of disgruntled Iraqi hoodlums could bring down the technological forces of the advancing coalition forces around Basra – Iraqi soldiers dressed as civilians, terrorists using Iraqi citizens as human shields, rabid Saddam lovers assaulting coalition forces with gun-mounted Toyota trucks, low-tech dispersion of biological and chemical agents.

Former generals Norman Schwarzkopf, on retainer with NBC since the Gulf War of the 1990s, and Wesley Clark, former commander in Kosovo and now with CNN, seemed out of their elements in discussing the present tactics of the US military. Where Schwarzkopf’s team pounded Baghdad for 36 days with an aerial bombardment, then unleashed the ground forces, General Frank’s team has opted for a ‘rolling’ push across Iraqi with simultaneous aerial and ground assaults. Instead of accepting this strategy as viable, these two former commanders find it hard to ‘understand’; they fear ‘unacceptable’ combat losses, escalating civilian casualties, and so forth.

As I write, former general Barry (“I’ve seen a lot of combat, and I’ve been wounded three times.”) McCaffrey is offering his dissenting opinion on the tactics of the present military leadership on CNBC. He claims the military are “making assumptions that are not true, but going ahead anyway.” McCaffrey, former ‘Drug Czar’ with the Clinton administration (who found his military background did not help much in the war on drugs) thinks the old school of ‘overwhelming force’ is superior to the new school of ‘adequate force.’ He does leave himself an out, however, asserting that, “despite problems, we will prevail.”

To avoid tarnishing their well-deserved images, former military leaders should admit they are out of the process now. This second-guessing in many ways undermines the confidence many Americans have in our military leadership, and certainly this is not their goal. Nevertheless, irresponsible criticism can have a deleterious effect on the morale of those who have loved ones on the front lines. It would be well if these studio commandants followed the old military adage: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” And, if they cannot bring themselves to step from the limelight, then at least defer judgment to those who are in possession of all the facts and who exercise command.

by William Driver, Guest Columnist
March 27, 2003