I don’t want to fail giving Admiral Fallon his due, as commander of Centcom, he probably has kept America from nuking Iran. Since before the Esquire article, speculation has been that Fallon would have to be removed before Bush and his weapons suppliers could expend their ordnance on Iran.
They’re lining up the UN Security Council proverbial three strikes and you’re out against Iran, Admiral Fallon may have been the last hurdle. Without begrudging the admiral, I question what the “military experts” are saying was the wisdom of Fallon’s stepping down. If you disagree with the Commander in Chief, you relinquish your post -or some such protocol.
Even a human rights activist might agree. Sooner than participate in an act which in good conscience you cannot condone, your responsibility would be not to do it. I have a concern that perhaps requires more than a criminal lawyer’s expertise: If you are being ordered to carry out a crime, in this case a WAR CRIME, is it enough to step aside in objection, leaving your subordinates to carry it through? Is it enough to voice your objection, however loud you are able to do it?
Might it not be your ethical duty, especially as when it had fallen under your authority, to prevent the crime being committed at all? And that would not mean simply impeding the action, or obstructing the personnel under your command, but also engaging the legal mechanisms of oversight at your disposal. To my mind it would mean initiating a review and the legal proceedings against whoever in the chain of command was trying to break the law.
Imagine at the firing lines in the Katyn Forest, or overlooking the ravine at Babi Yar, walking away because you refused to issue the orders. Is that anymore than saying you hadn’t the stomach for it?
The Commander in thief has gone further insane. Right after I got done talking to you he was on PBS not only blaming the sector of the American economy that controls the absolute least (like a fraction of a percentage point) of the actual liquid assets, let alone capital, “the dead-beat debtors” for and I shit you not almost causing a recession by defaulting on their home loans and that the economy was robust, all we have to do to Keep it robust is to slide a little more of our already massive trade deficit to the Terrorist Thugs his Daddy and Ray Gunn, (cowboy president) installed as the Lawful Government of Colombia to Keep The Recession From Happening…
And then, The Romantic Afghanistan Mission Remark…
OK…. If Cheney is under impeachment, (just throwing out a little untested Constitutional theory here) would that prevent him from actually taking the Presidency if Bush is declared to be incompetent?
If nothing else, this one would be a Wedge Issue to end all Wedge Issues..
It’s also proof positive that the ChickenHawk in Chief is purely and simply Delusional.
If he threw the remark out intentionally, with the belief that people are stupid enough to believe it, it would be delusional. He would have to be thinking he has God-like powers of persuasion.
Sad part of it is, it’s pretty obvious that he believes the lies his apologists offer, that he wanted to go to VietNam, really really he did but he was prevented from doing so because he wasn’t checked out to fly the newest Fighters….
although there’s records of him flying other planes, like cargo aircraft, which were also extensively used in the Nam. I know a lot of Nam Vets. Grew up in El Paso which is even more Military than this town.
Fact was, you didn’t get the “Combat” tag in your service description for free.
Every man jack I ever met who was a “Fighter” pilot or “Combat” helicopter pilot or crew, or Combat Infantryman, was sent over to VietNam.
Of course not many of the ChickenHawk scions of the Very Rich and Very Politically Connected Families were in my social circle. Change “not many” to “not any” and you get a realistic portrait.
This is on the order of Romney getting up in front of the VFW this summer and saying “gee, fellas, I would have loved to be over there with you gettin’ shot at and everything, but I had a Yellow Streak down my back and enough money to get a Draft Deferment so that prevented me from, instead of waiting to be drafted, go down to enlist or anything like that”
Romney who thinks he’s got a clean shot at being McCain’s President in charge of Vice.
Zippy the Monkey is not just delusional, he is an outright liar. The high-powered Carlyle Group, in which all the Bushies are very involved, couldn’t meet $400 million in margin calls from its lenders just this week and were “forced” to default on $16.6 BILLION in debt. The group basically collapsed and left the lenders holding the bag.
Oh yes, Zippy is WELL AWARE of what’s going on with the economy. Why do you think he’s been putting large chunks of his personal fortune in foreign investments like large tracts of land in Paraguay?
What dicks. I hate them all.
Oh and Eric, I totally agree that to bail in a situation where Fallon may indeed be the last best hope seems the easy way out. However, the way the military works, I very much doubt if he really stepped aside. They would’ve killed him had he not gotten out of the way, as they’ve done with other oppositional leaders.
What dicks. I hate them all.
They could also do worse than kill him.
The Pentagon was the agency outed by Playboy way back when, about the LSD experiments… Acid is really cheap to make provided you have the raw materials.
Others that are even cheaper are Sodium Pentothal opium and/or just plain ol’ alcohol.
It wouldn’t take much of any of the above to turn one’s mind inside out, with just the right kinds of pressure.
Fallon was an Admiral. I firmly believe the Pentagoons have years of psychiatric and psychological profiles on him to be used in just such an emergency.
And, they each have similar profiles in their records.
I love Jonah-isms. Pentagoons. Funny.
The role of Fallon in the coming attack against Iran is very similar to the role played by Colin Powell in the US War to Occupy Iraq. There is little integrity in either of these two.