Yo,
The Belmont Club is the coolest place on the web, thanks to the inhabitants, comparing their ears at the bar. I always imagine it like the basement restaurant in the Star Hotel in downtown Jo-burg, within dusting distance of the diamond mines, where they serve very hot chili with a cold radish and all the beer you want.
Have you guys posted about The Strongest Tribe? Bing West’s latest in his Iraq trilogy? Sorry if I’m covering plowed ground.
Bing West is the author of “The Strongest Tribe” – he was Marine in Vietnam, Asst SecDef, and has been to Iraq at least 15 times. Given his resume, and membership in St. Crispin’s Infantry Society, I guess, he gets to talk to everyone from lowliest combat soldiers to four star generals.
West says GW Bush acted like a Chmn of the Board instead of a CEO, and West considers it a failing that Bush didn’t dig in deeper into strategy understanding so he could operate as the Commander-in-Chief the way FDR did.
West says Rumsfeld was always debating and demanding of facts and expected results from the Pentagon and his generals in the field. West uses the term “rebarbative” – you can look it up, I think he’s trying to suggest, in an upper-class accent, that Rummy actually IS the supreme prick he appears to be on TV.
Rumsfeld, from the very beginning of the war in Iraq, wanted to win and get out. Rummy always wanted to win. He said the Dept of Def “doesn’t do nation building.”
West asserts that Bush, upon not finding WMD’s, decides that creating democracy in the Middle East is the new mission. And then we all rely on elections as some holy wish and prayer to create a peaceful republic in Iraq.
From Mr. West’s point of view, the Military POV, these 3 elections were all extremely disruptive of the mission. It’s hard to argue with his points.
Most of the book is Bing West’s contemporaneous notes of following troops into combat and generals into game-changing confrontations. He is no friend of Bush or Rumsfeld, and as a former Asst Secretary of Defense, he writes with a gentleman’s courtesy.
Bing West does call out the politicians who declared the war lost. Harry Reid comes in for detailed opprobrium, as Senators and Congressmen also bear a responsibility when the country is at war.
Mr. West’s concludes with his own Lessons Learned, and he most fears a nation that has lost its will. He concludes that the politicians and bureaucrats in Washington stumbled around, while the Marines and Army on the ground got close to the locals and finally figured out how to bring peace in Iraq.
Bing West most worries about the fact that our heroes are ignored, while America’s mistakes are magnified.
He does the best he can to show us our heroes, give us their names and histories and accomplishments. Reading Bing West, you have no doubt that America is the gentlest giant in human history.
Tony c/o Belmont Club
http://www.amazon.com/Strongest-Tribe-Politics-Endgame-Iraq/dp/1400067014
