The Hill’s Pundits Blog

September 17, 2007

Bob Gates or Bob McNamara? Gen. Petraeus or Gen. Westmoreland?

Brent Budowsky

In his book about the failures of the Vietnam War, Dereliction of Duty, H.R. McMaster writes of how the delusion and hubris of President Lyndon Johnson, combined with the failures in judgment and political courage of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, created a devastating tragedy for the American military and American security.

Some enterprising journalist might ask McMaster, who is close to Gen. Petraeus: Are we not making the same mistakes today?…

Everyone who follows the military, and knows the military, knows that Gen. Petraeus’s views are not supported by many in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, senior military commanders in the Army and Marine Corps, or by his boss, Adm. Fallon.

Yet Secretary Gates and Gen. Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stated exactly the opposite in their press conference. They claimed, falsely, that the Petraeus view was unanimously agreed upon among the senior commanders beyond Petraeus.

We have reached the point where there is a moral duty of senior military leaders to  speak publicly and honorably about what they privately believe. No doubt careers  are being threatened and intimidation of military leaders has forced their silence, at great cost to our country and our troops.

Democratic leaders in Congress should call the 20 highest-ranking military officers in the nation, and ask them, clearly and publicly, for their military judgment and advice. There should be no more leaking their dissent and then issuing incoherent non-denial denials or untrue denials…

What is needed is a serious, professional and honorable set of nationally televised hearings comparable to the Fulbright hearings during Vietnam to let all senior military officers state their own views, in their own way…

Let them speak for themselves, and not let historians look back on their conduct today and compare Bob Gates to Bob McNamara, and compare Gen. Petraeus to Gen. Westmoreland, because the stakes are too high, and the damage too great, for our country to make that same mistake yet again.

Budowsky serves on the Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit and is a contributing editor to Fighting Dems News Service. He handled intelligence issues for Sen. Lloyd Bentsen when the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act was originally passed, and was legislative director to Bill Alexander, then the chief deputy whip of the House. He can be read on The Hill’s Pundits Blog and reached at brentbbi@webtv.net.

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