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February 10, 2005
Dumb-Ass
General Should Be Fired
By BILL PRESS
On Friday night, February 4, I appeared on “Hannity & Colmes” to debate
the fate of Marine General James Mattis. When I returned home, I had an email from a friend in Los Angeles, under subject
heading “That Dumb-Ass General.”
In case you didn’t see the news, Mattis – who’s in charge
of finding ways to better train recruits at Camp Pendleton – spoke on a panel in San Diego last week. As part of his
remarks, he said: “Actually, it’s a lot of fun to fight. You know, it’s a hell of a hoot…It’s
fun to shoot some people. I’ll be right up front with you, I like brawling.”
Mattis added: “You go
into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys
like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway. So it’s a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them.”
Dumb-ass,
indeed. He sounds like Hannibal Lector! The problem is, stupid remarks like that just reinforce the notion that Americans
hate all Arabs and are engaged in a Holy War against Islam. You can bet that Mattis’s comments will be reprinted around
the Arab world and just further enflame anti-American sentiment.
As I challenged Hannity, how would we like it if some
Al-Qaeda terrorist talked openly about how much fun it was to shoot and kill Americans? We’d be outraged. We’d
be demanding revenge. And understandably so.
Well, Americans shouldn’t talk that way, either. Especially not
American military leaders. As an individual, Mattis can think or say whatever he wants. But when he wears the uniform of the
United States Marines, he is representing this nation and he should represent the best of this nation – not sound like
some sick, heartless terrorist who gets a thrill out of killing.
What I want to know is: Why hasn’t Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld condemned his remarks? Why hasn’t Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush condemned his remarks?
Their silence is shameful.
[. . .]
CIA Admits It Goofed
Here’s another story you probably missed – because it was buried on the inside pages: The CIA now admits
it was dead-wrong about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. You know, the same weapons whose existence, George Tenet
told President Bush, were a “slam dunk.”
From the Washington Post of February 1: “In what may be
a formal acknowledgment of the obvious, the CIA has issued a classified report revising its prewar assessments on Iraq and
concluding that Baghdad abandoned its chemical weapons programs in 1991, intelligence officials familiar with the document
said.”
In other words, the CIA was wrong, George Tenet was wrong, Condoleeza Rice was wrong and George W. Bush
was wrong.
Based on incomplete, contradictory, or phony intelligence, they led this nation into an unwise and unnecessary
war – and almost 1500 young Americans have died for their mistakes.
Yet, George Tenet was awarded the Medal of
Freedom, Condoleeza Rice is now Secretary of State and George W. Bush is still President of the United States. Who says crime
doesn’t pay?
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