My, what an active day was yesterday! While most of us were focused on Legalizing Torture, Denying the Writ of Habeas Corpus, and Senator Specter's "hearing of questionable timing" on such things, another very interesting hearing was taking place:
Yesterday the
Democratic Policy Committee met and heard testimony from three
extremely distinguished military officers (their names below link to their written statements:)
Major General John R.S. Batiste - U.S. Army (Retired) - retired November 1, 2005 after a 31-year career in the United States Army. His "most recent assignment was as commanding general of the 1st Infantry Division from August 2002 to June 2005" in Kosovo and then in Iraq where "the division was deployed to north-central Iraq from February 2004 until February 2005, and included 22,000 soldiers from active and reserve component units from throughout the United States."
Major General Paul D. Eaton - U.S. Army (Retired) - served a 33-year career in the United States Army. "His most recent operational assignment was Commanding General of the command charged with reestablishing Iraqi Security Forces."
Colonel Thomas X. Hammes - U.S. Marine Corps (Retired) - retired after a 30-year career in the United States Marine Corps. "He participated in stabilization operations in Somalia and Iraq as well as training insurgents in various places... His final tour in the Marine Corps was as Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. He has lectured widely at U.S. and International Staff and War Colleges."
The meeting was "liveblogged" here yesterday by MediaFreeze and discussed in the diary BREAKING: Retired Generals Slam Rumsfeld in SENATE HEARING by mmontanaman.
Today Randi Rhodes is devoting an entire show to this hearing and rightly so. I am pushing out another diary because I agree with Senator Reid that "This Hearing Could Change Our Country." I want everyone who may have missed the hearing to have an opportunity to see or hear it in its entirety.
On the website of the Democratic Policy Committee you will find a video copy of the entire hearing, an mp3, and highlights in text and sound clips. You will also find short biographies of the witnesses--military insiders who worked for and with Secretary Rumsfeld and the Bush Administration in Iraq.
I urge each person here to listen to the entire hearing. You will not believe your ears! The fact that this information is being given to a Congressional Committee is most important. As most here are aware, in all these long five years since this Invasion/Occupation in Iraq began, not one Congressional Oversight hearing has been held by this Republican Congress! Think of it! This is unheard of in the history of United States warfare.
You can read Chairman Dorgan's opening statement of the hearing, "An Oversight Hearing on the Planning and Conduct of the War in Iraq" here.
Here you will find an explanation of the hearing's purpose, mention of previous hearings and an introduction of the witnesses. A portion of the opening statement:
In August 1946, President Truman signed into law legislation creating policy committees for both the majority and minority parties. These committees were authorized to hold hearings, in an effort to better inform policymaking.
Our policy committee has now held ten hearings on the issue of contracting abuses in Iraq. We've uncovered a series of abuses involving a number of different contractors--abuses that have endangered our troops and their mission, and cost American taxpayers billions of dollars.
Today's hearing is the first in a series of hearings on the general issue of the planning and conduct of the war in Iraq, which we plan to conduct through the month of January. And as I have indicated, the witnesses we will hear from today are uniquely qualified to speak to this issue.
Oversight is not a partisan game of "gotcha." As with our previous oversight hearings, we have extended an invitation to members of both parties to join us.
The Democrats have announced that they will continue these hearings on Iraq through January, and I understand they plan to take the hearings out of D.C. so the American public can take part. See a gnostic's fantastic diary Bitchy, whiney, embarassed repubs cry about Dem Iraq hearings for the Republican response to the hearing yesterday.
Although all Congressional Republicans were invited, only one showed up: Representative Walter B. Jones, who you will remember has grave misgivings about choices he made going into this Iraq adventure.
Here are some amazing highlights from the hearing (emphasis mine.) These are just some of the many earthshaking things said. There are so many. Listen to the entire hearing. You won't regret the time.
General Batiste:
"Secretary Rumsfeld's dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American service men and women, our allies and the good people of Iraq. He was responsible for America and our allies going to war with the wrong plan and a strategy that did not address the realities of fighting an insurgency. Secretary Rumsfeld built his team by systematically removing dissension. America went to war with his plan. To say that he listens to his generals is disingenuous. We are fighting with his strategy. He reduced force levels to unacceptable levels, micromanaged the war, and caused delays in the approval of troop requirements in the deployment process, which tied the hands of commanders while our troops were in contact with the enemy. At critical junctures, commanders were forced to focus on managing shortages, rather than leading, planning and anticipating opportunity. Through all of this, our congressional oversight committees were all but silent, not asking the tough questions as was done routinely during both world wars, Korea and Vietnam. Our Congress shares responsibility for what is and is not happening in Iraq and Afghanistan."
General Batiste:
There's no joy in the Dept. of the Army; I'll speak for that. I know a lot of great officers that continue to serve our nation. This business of arrogance and dismissiveness and contemptuous behavior has certainly transcended the department. An organization reflects its leader. Period.
Sen. Schumer: Is it worse than it's been in the past?
General Batiste: Oh, it's absolutely worse. Now I caveat by saying that I've been out of the service now for 11 months, but I'm in close contact with a lot of great people. I have yet to be contacted by any serving general, or admiral, or flag officer saying to stop what I'm doing. And as you know, I've been speaking out pretty regularly now since the 4th of April.
Sen. Schumer: Have any of them contacted you and said, "Keep going!"
Gen. Batiste: Absolutely!
General Eaton:
"I briefed this plan, the second phase essentially of the operation given me, the requirement to adapt. Mr. Rumsfeld received this briefing on 5 September and I got his approval to proceed with an accelerated, adapted plan that would produce an Army of 27 battalions, essentially 40,000 personnel and associated command and control from national to squad, start the navy, start the air force, the logistics systems, and a budget of $2.2 billion. We laid out the basing strategy for the Iraqi armed forces. He approved this plan, but he put his finger in my chest and said "Just don't make this look like the American Army."
General Eaton:
"Mr. Rumsfeld came in to transform the US military. To turn the Army into a lighter, more lethal armed force. In fact, Rumsfeld's vision is a force designed to meet a Warsaw Pact type force more effectively - but we are not fighting the Warsaw Pact. We are fighting an insurgency: a distributed low-tech, high-concept war that demands greater numbers of ground forces, not fewer. Mr. Rumsfeld won't acknowledge this fact. And he has failed to adapt to the current situation. He has tried and continues to fight this war on the cheap."
Please, please, please take a moment to listen to the hearing--absorb it--and tell your friends and neighbors to do the same.
It may just "change our country!"
[Clarification as requested:
What is described here is a "meeting" not an "official hearing." I believe this series of meetings is intended to get to the truth, record the facts, and inform the public. nh]