The US Military Is Revolting!

No, seriously... What if they really did?

From an article in SMH:

The problems in Iraq are fracturing old conventions about the relationship between the US military and the civilian leadership, an extraordinary development during a war. And it has opened a public split in the military, mirroring the deep divisions in the country as a whole.

That's a pretty major issue, right there. I mean, when blogs like this are getting linked from official US military websites, you know something is up!

Newsweek calls it "the war over the war":

When does a military officer stand up to—and push back against—his civilian masters? And when does he just salute and say, "Can do, sir"?

It's a question of enormous consequence for a democracy with the world's most powerful military. The balance between the civilian and military is precarious...

Douglas Macgregor, a retired U.S. Army colonel, says recent criticism of Rusmfeld is "probably best understood as "the first salvos in the war over 'Who Lost Iraq'." So where does the buck stop? Newsweek gets it right:

The real responsibility for Iraq, of course, lies with President Bush. Together with Vice President Dick Cheney (draft-deferred in Vietnam) and Rumsfeld (Navy jet pilot who did not see combat), Bush (Texas National Guard pilot) seemed determined to brush past or roll over the cautious national-security bureaucracy. Bush made little or no effort to prod his national-security staff to ask tough questions...

Newsweek quotes a Rumsfeld source saying the Don is concerned about the damage his forced resignation might do to the military as an institution. It backs this up with a military hack claiming Bush will not suffer the public indignity of being bullied into forcing Rumsfeld out. But 82% of Newsweek readers say Rummy should resign - so it's not just a handful of retired generals who want him out, it's most of the country!

TIME suggests Rumsfeld's fate is up to Cheney:

"The possibility of Rumsfeld leaving has definitely crossed the President's mind," Time magazine quotes an unnamed former White House official as saying.

"The key to it is the relationship with Cheney, and I don't know where that is right now."

Sadly, given how tenaciously these Bush thugs cling to power, I can foresee a day when the only way to save US Democracy might be a US Army-led (or at least Army-supported) coup. If such a time does come, will they be made of the right stuff?