Advisers in Washington never make any sacrifice for wars
Written by Larry ROTTMANN
12:19 AM, Jul 4, 2012 |
"U.S. Army Invades Africa." Yes, you read that headline correctly. On June
6, <
http://www.dodlive.mil/files/2010/03/BIO_MG-David-Hogg.pdf> Maj. Gen.
David R. Hogg, commander of the "U.S. Army Africa,"
<
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2012/06/army-3000-soldiers-serve-in-africa-ne
xt-year-060812/> announced that a full brigade of 3,000-plus G.I.s will be
deployed "across the continent in 2013," in order to supplement the 1,200
soldiers already stationed at <
http://www.cnic.navy.mil/cldj/> Camp
Lemonnier in <
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0107467.html> Djibouti. And if
you're like me, you might be asking, where's Djibouti? And when was this
military base established? And why didn't we know about it before now? And
what the heck are we doing there? And, most importantly, who made this
decision?
Ever since the Korean War, the executive branch - thanks to the cowardly
inaction of our representatives and senators - has ignored the
<
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/war-powers.php> War Powers Act, which states
that war cannot be declared without the approval of Congress, and virtually
all presidents since 1950 have sent U.S. troops into harm's way, just on the
chief executive's say-so.
Tens of thousands of American soldiers have died in Korea, Vietnam, Laos,
Cambodia, Haiti, Grenada, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, Lebanon,
Somalia, Kuwait (and in many of the other "secret" sites where U.S. forces
are deployed), and most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan, all without
congressional input and oversight. And G.I.s are now committing
<
http://www.news-leader.com/viewart/20120608/NEWS07/306080038/Suicides-escal
ate-among-U-S-troops> suicide at the horrific rate of one a day. Yet, a new
African military mission has been declared by the White House. So, who
really decides where our military services are deployed, and why?
When Barack Obama gave his now-legendary West Point
<
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-address-nation
-way-forward-afghanistan-and-pakistan> speech justifying the sending of
30,000 additional soldiers into Middle East combat, he offered an insight
into how he came to that decision. Because he is not a military veteran, he
formed a private, nonelected "war council" to advise him about what to do. I
can imagine this cabal of ivy League-educated white men, wearing $5,000
Armani suits, all sat around a big table in the White House, drinking
free-trade coffee and eating organic scones, persuading the president to
wage more war in a faraway place they'd never been to and knew absolutely
nothing about. And this is how it's done.
These men are the true villains, but they won't be subject to media
scrutiny. At the end of their four-hour workday, I imagine they'll go
golfing with their cronies and/or canoodling with their secretaries, then
head home to their rural Virginia mansions for three-martini suppers with
their loving (and not being bombed) families. And they'll sleep well,
completely unencumbered by any guilt or responsibility for the deaths of
more G.I.s and some unknown Africans somewhere in the jungles of the Dark
Continent.
Then, the next morning, or the next month, or the next year, these same
officials (or ones just like them) will be ferried by limo back to their
palatial, taxpayer-funded D.C. offices, where over coffee, they will
probably start yet another war, in some remote corner of the planet. Africa
this week. Who knows where next time?
And as I know from my service in Vietnam, there's always a next time.
Larry Rottman
Larry Rottman
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Received on Wed Jul 04 2012 - 08:04:55 EDT
