Does dissent or criticism harm troop morale?
Fri Feb 02, 2007 at 07:53:21 AM PDT
It seems we are going to have to shoot down this ignorant meme again and again until Republicans figure out how this democracy works. It may be a long time, folks.
There is definitive proof that criticizing the President's Iraq War failures and encouraging discussion of the unprecedented criticism by retired General Officers of our nation's gigantic problems in Iraq does not hurt our troops' morale.
Republicans keep lying about it because they can't stand the heat of the debate. When it was Bill Clinton in office they did not hesisate one second in criticizing his decisions as Commander in Chief. And they did not worry about troop morale with regard to those criticisms.
The following occurred on May 17 at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on the Defense Department Budget.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace were responding to questions from Senator Arlen Specter.
(I had a good C-SPAN link at one time, but it's gone. Also, no Senate or news transcripts gave the Q&A that I could find. But knowing our Kossacks....)
They both said criticism by former Generals and discussions of the Administration's policies does not hurt troop morale -
Senator Specter: "Without getting into the substance of the comments or complaints by retired Generals: has there been any significant impact on the morale of the men and women in the Department of Defense because of those disagreements?"
Secretary Rumsfeld: "I don't know that I...I haven't taken any polling or taken temperatures in that. I haven't noticed anything Ask General Pace, he's around all the time."
Senator Specter: "How about it, General Pace?"
General Pace: "Sir, certainly not within the building. I'll reserve my comments [unintelligible]. General Hagee - is the most recent Joint Chief to come back from overseas. During his time this was all bubbling in the press. He received zero questions from any service member of any rank.
Sargent Major Gainey, who is the senior enlisted advisor to the Chairman travels all the time. And he comes back and reports back to me - as recently as last week - that in all of his travels and with as many people as he meets, not a single person has asked that question.
So as far as morale of the force: no impact, Sir."
Our troops are in Iraq dodging bullets, bombs and inside hit jobs and these guys think they can't handle a little criticism of their bold and brave "leaders"?
Our troops can handle criticism from retired Generals and anyone else. In fact, I'm sure many of them agree with much of that criticism. They can handle the poor plans, the lousy mission, and the incompetent leadership. Not all of them survive those poor plans and lack of equipment, which is tragic beyond description. Yet Republicans don't seem to care about those facts.
But our troops can handle the truth. That senate hearing was one more piece of proof. It's the anti-democratic rhetoric of their cowardly leaders on the right that betrays our troops' bravery and commitment to this nation's most cherished democratic principles.
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