[Dialogue] Bush Has Gone AWOL

[Harry Wainwright]

Published on Saturday, April 28, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
<http://www.commondreams.org>  

Bush Has Gone AWOL

by General William Odom

The following is a transcript of the Democratic Radio Address delivered by
Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.) on Saturday April 28,
2007: 

"Good morning, this is Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army,
retired.

"I am not now nor have I ever been a Democrat or a Republican. Thus, I do
not speak for the Democratic Party. I speak for myself, as a non-partisan
retired military officer who is a former Director of the National Security
Agency. I do so because Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, asked me.

"In principle, I do not favor Congressional involvement in the execution of
U.S. foreign and military policy. I have seen its perverse effects in many
cases. The conflict in Iraq is different. Over the past couple of years, the
President has let it proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in
the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be
rescued.

"Thus, he lets the United States fly further and further into trouble,
squandering its influence, money, and blood, facilitating the gains of our
enemies. The Congress is the only mechanism we have to fill this vacuum in
command judgment.

"To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have
gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor talks as
though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games.

"Some in Congress on both sides of the aisle have responded with their own
tits-for-tats. These kinds of games, however, are no longer helpful, much
less amusing. They merely reflect the absence of effective leadership in a
crisis. And we are in a crisis.

"Most Americans suspect that something is fundamentally wrong with the
President's management of the conflict in Iraq. And they are right.

"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover
from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place. The war could
never have served American interests.

"But it has served Iran's interest by revenging Saddam Hussein's invasion of
Iran in the 1980s and enhancing Iran's influence within Iraq. It has also
served al Qaeda's interests, providing a much better training ground than
did Afghanistan, allowing it to build its ranks far above the levels and
competence that otherwise would have been possible.

"We cannot 'win' a war that serves our enemies interests and not our own.
Thus continuing to pursue the illusion of victory in Iraq makes no sense. We
can now see that it never did.

"A wise commander in this situation normally revises his objectives and
changes his strategy, not just marginally, but radically. Nothing less today
will limit the death and destruction that the invasion of Iraq has
unleashed.

"No effective new strategy can be devised for the United States until it
begins withdrawing its forces from Iraq. Only that step will break the
paralysis that now confronts us. Withdrawal is the pre-condition for winning
support from countries in Europe that have stood aside and other major
powers including India, China, Japan, Russia.

"It will also shock and change attitudes in Iran, Syria, and other countries
on Iraq's borders, making them far more likely to take seriously new U.S.
approaches, not just to Iraq, but to restoring regional stability and
heading off the spreading chaos that our war has caused.

"The bill that Congress approved this week, with bipartisan support, setting
schedules for withdrawal, provides the President an opportunity to begin
this kind of strategic shift, one that defines regional stability as the
measure of victory, not some impossible outcome.

"I hope the President seizes this moment for a basic change in course and
signs the bill the Congress has sent him. I will respect him greatly for
such a rare act of courage, and so too, I suspect, will most Americans.

"This is retired General Odom. Thank you for listening."

General Odom has served as Director of the National Security Agency and
Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior intelligence
officer. In his address, General Odom will discuss why he believes President
Bush should sign the conference report on the Iraq Accountability Act.

You can download the radio address by clicking here
<http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/a
udio/addresses/20070428_LtGenOdom_RadioAddress.mp3> .

  _____  

Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org 

URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/28/820/

 

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