Ret. Lt. Col. Bill Astore, author of the recent article, “Saving the Military from Itself,” discusses the strain on the U.S. military, the Petraeus Report fraud, the necessity of withdrawal from Iraq, “troop support” and the difference between the war against al Qaeda and the occupation of Iraq.
MP3 here. (16:35)
William J. Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF), earned a doctorate in modern history from the University of Oxford in 1996. He has taught military cadets at the Air Force Academy, officers at the Naval Postgraduate School, and now teaches at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. His books and articles, focusing primarily on military history, include Hindenburg: Icon of German Militarism (Potomac Press, 2005).
I was really disappointed to hear in this interview, both Charles Goyette and Bill Astoire give some excuses for the decision on the part of General Petraeus to betray the American people by his deliberately overselling the “surge” effects in his last address to the Congressional committee. I still say too darn bad that Petraeus was not required to give such testimony under oath.
Charles,
I enjoyed the interview. LtC Astoire brings up a lot of good points and confirms something that I thought when I saw Petreaus and all his medals. Hell, I thought to myself he’s got more medals than Patton or McArthur. That is inflation of the worse form and it really does leave to a cheapening of decorations. He’s right about it extending to evaluation reports. I receive one one year where I scored all “fives”. Now, I knew that I was good, but not that good and when I pointed this out to my superiors I was told that that is what they thought. Later, I made the discovery that everyone got fives in the unit. You can’t do any sort of planning or evaluating with nonsense like this. Ditto the medals.
I think Astoire is equally correct when it comes to reading the situation and perhaps drawing the wrong conclusions. The medal inflaton I think has something to do with this. To me it is a symptom of corruption. I’m sure the White House and the Naval Observatory was breathing down his neck. I personally think that someone like Petreaus shouldn’t be the one before Congress, but his superiors (and under oath). It is only because this administration has been caught in so many lies that this came about and it needs to be stopped.