Bush - Lieberman & The Ship Of Fools

BrandfordBoy picks up on Lieberman's announcing his officially foolish position:

My Left Nutmeg:
"President Bush may not be certain he wants more troops in Iraq, but Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is.

'After speaking with our military commanders on the ground,' he said Wednesday in an e-mail, 'I strongly believe that additional U.S. troops must be deployed to Baghdad.'"

The real problem with all of this is that Generals don't quite agree with Lieberman according to the ArmyTimes:

Long-rumored shuffle of generals expected:
"A shuffle of top American generals in Iraq is likely to accompany the shift in U.S. policy that President Bush is considering.

Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, has submitted plans to go ahead with a retirement that is months overdue, according to the U.S. Central Command.

And the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, has indicated in recent months that he also may not stay much longer than the end of this year.
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Since they have opposed sending more troops to Iraq, their departures could make it easier for Bush and his new Defense Secretary Robert Gates to switch course in the troubled campaign, where they are considering a short-term surge in forces."

And they are retiring rather than get onboard with the Bush and Lieberman troubled course of action. Sound like a familiar situation?

Retired generals speak out to oppose Rumsfeld:
"In this, Powell echoed former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who told Congress just weeks before the 2003 invasion that several hundred thousand US troops would be necessary to secure Iraq after the invasion. For this he was publicly contradicted by then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Rumsfeld named General Shinseki's replacement a year before he was to retire and broke custom by not attending his retirement ceremony."
--- csmonitor.com

Remember that General Shinseki was pretty much forced into retirement for disagreeing with the fool on the hill.

sptmck offers 1% more insight into this foolish course of action:

1% MORE CONSCIOUS:
"It’s official: Oedipus Lieberman has morphed into Captain Ahab, another tragically fueled figure. In this unfolding novel of contemporary American foreign policy, Melville’s masterpiece certainly comes to mind because as we grapple with how to “catch” some sort of success in Iraq, the ubiquitous presence in the American psyche, it eludes us just like the whale-the ubiquitous presence in the novel—escapes mad Ahab. And Ahab’s as deranged as they come. So is Lieberman. "

And so is Bush.

And they all want us to climb onboard on their ship of fools.