Major General Paul Eaton was, to the best of my memory, one of the principals who led the so-called "revolt of the Generals" whose clear-eyed clarion call for the removal of Donald Rumsfeld led to the ouster of the disastrous Secretary of Defense.
Last night the General appeared on Countdown and had the singular failing of being utterly straightforward and blunt. His assessment was clear - Republicans and their bizarre calls for selectivce application of the Constitution, for liberal use of torture and for their general posturing and preening on national security is not only misguided - it is dangerous to national security.
To my mind General Eaton did a rare thing in our public discourse - he laid the blame for this counterproductive nonsense right where it belongs - it is Republicanism. More below.
Speaking as a veteran of military service Gen. Eaton had a clear message to Repbulicans "cut it out".
http://www.nsnetwork.org/...
What I found most refreshing and instructive was that Gen. Eaton communicated that the pestilence infecting effective counter terrorism was partisan and Repbulican. This is the unequivocal statement:
"Keith there is a retired judge advocate, Navy Jag admiral named John Hudson (ph), who said it about as well as I could find anywhere. And he said, you know, the use of torture and these techniques is -- that`s the tool of the stupid, the lazy and the pseudo tough. And that`s, I`m afraid, what we`ve got going on in the Republican Party playbook to excite their base and it`s an unfortunate attempt and it`s counterproductive to the national security of the United States."
We all appreciate that our public discourse can be filled with lunacy and emotional appeals to our baser elements and to exploit fears and prejudices - so it is of utmost importance to occasionally be explicit that the problem is Republicanism.