Dwahzon's Village

Items of Interest

This dailykos diary was written by a former Army officer that I met at YearlyKos. He highlights a WaPo op-ed by 12 former Army captains who served in Iraq, and General Sanchez’s withering summary of the Bush administration’s approach to the Iraq war.

Army Offers Captains $35K; Captains Give Blistering Response

On October 11, just five days ago, the Washington Post reported that Defense Secretary Robert Gates had authorized the Army to offer bonuses of up to $35,000 to keep captains from leaving the service.

Today, on October 16—just five days later—12 former Army captains (all Iraq veterans) responded by advocating for a withdrawal from Iraq:

There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq. To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately. A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition.

~snip~

America, it has been five years. It's time to make a choice.

Also linked to in the diary:

New York Times op-ed written in August 2007 by 7 soldiers, 2 of whom were killed the third week in September and a 3rd received a brain injury.

NYT article on Gen. Sanchez’s speech criticizing Bush’s administration of the war in Iraq


-- Andrew Sullivan posted a very interesting email from a reader about Obama and Gen-X conservatives.

posted by dwahzon @ 12:57 PM