Military Advice

I sometimes wonder whether the military ever advised Bush against some of the things the administration has used it for. Did they, or anyone among their ranks, ever say Gitmo might be a bad idea?

The intelligence, including military intelligence, has been panned for the WMD intelligence. It failed to forecast post war Iraq and it has failed to deliver effective information for fighting the insurgents.

Throughout the war (apart from the initial part where the U.S. force was so overwhelming that no thinking was really required) the military strategists have failed to provide, or at least implement, anything resembling a plan that will work. Part of the problem is that it is not a military problem. Part of it is in tying its hands but the question is why the serving command level officers have not conveyed this forcefully enough to the civilian leadership. Instead we now have the twenty thousand man surge. I cannot accept that any military mind would consider this a viable strategy.

Training Iraqis sounded like a good idea but for many reasons it has not quite worked. Part of the reason is factions within Iraq. However, the time is drawing neigh when the training itself will be questioned. For the given situation and time frame is the training appropriate?

Then there was the military police and the Abu Ghraib Prison. The less said the better.

Now the military medical facilities are under mold attack. The first Major General to be fired throughout this whole fiasco, unbelievably, headed a hospital.

Now with the military tribunals military justice is about to come under the lights. No matter how it goes it will not be good for military law. It was not designed to handle the cases it has been asked to handle. Trying a fifteen year old (now twenty but held at Gitmo for five years) at a military tribunal is not going to look good even if (highly unlikely) in the end he is let go(http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/03/08/gitmo.phone.call.ap/index.html).