Did Donald Rumsfeld rush into war, brushing off experts who warned it would be no “walkover”? Yes, according to the New Yorker and others. No, according to Rumsfeld and General Myers, in a vehement press conference.
Not surprisingly, Myers also claims that people who thought the war should have been planned differently, and news media who report their dissent, are endangering our troops and harming morale.* I have a different perspective.
After any decision, some people who “lost” feel their ideas got no fair hearing. By protesting, they hope to move future decisions more toward their side. Left-wingers have quite a lot to protest lately, but (for example) the anti-Roe-versus-Wade crowd is still out in force. So I don’t think the fact that everyone doesn’t clam up about the war should come as a huge surprise to Rumsfeld** and Myers–nor should the fact that a free press in a free country wants to report this dispute.
Just as predictable as outcry from folks who “lost” the debate are the highly moral reasons the folks who “won” give that all debate should end immediately. For example, at Harvard, there was a very loud outcry when anti-abortion students put up posters of much-magnified fetuses–pro-choice students claimed the posters were unfair, “intimidating,” immoral, etc., etc.
If Republicans want to build our troops’ morale, let them do so by pointing out that in real life few decisions are unanimous–and that one of the things we’re supposedly fighting for is the right of dissenters to speak. It is not the fault of General Myers that sleazy politicians have been pushing the idea that any dissent is treason that hurts our troops–but I can’t help asking, what business did he have sending troops out in such a precarious way that their safety depends on an end to domestic free speech?
* “The criticisms, he said, are ‘absolutely wrong, they bear no resemblance to the truth, and it’s just harmful to our troops that are out there fighting very bravely, very courageously.’
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** Joe Conason in Salon amusingly details Rumsfeld’s loud dissent on military strategy when Clinton had troops in the field in Kosovo.