There’s nothing quite like getting shit-canned to make a person willing to tell the truth to their boss.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is expected to advise President Bush to reduce the U.S. force in Iraq next year by almost half, potentially creating a rift with top White House officials and other military commanders over the course of the war.
Administration and military officials say Marine Gen. Peter Pace is likely to convey concerns by the Joint Chiefs that keeping well in excess of 100,000 troops in Iraq through 2008 will severely strain the military. This assessment could collide with one being prepared by the U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, calling for the U.S. to maintain higher troop levels for 2008 and beyond.
Of course, the same freedom comes once you make a decision to retire. Sen. Warner (R-VA) still hasn’t made it official, but the signs are there.
Sen. John W. Warner, one of the most influential Republican voices in Congress on national security, called on President Bush yesterday to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq in time for Christmas as a new intelligence report concluded that political leaders in Baghdad are “unable to govern effectively.”
Thus, in the dubious tradition of Colin Powell and his State Department crew, those on the way out are the only ones that have the guts to speak truth to power. Pace and Warner have put down the water.
