Getting into war needs to be well – planned. Most army officials who have been into a series of battles in their careers have been risking their lives in defense of freedom yet it seems that people who have not been to battle knows better than them.
Lieutenant General John Riggs was force to retire and allegations has it that that his demotion was politically motivated by allowing contractors outside to do unauthorized work. Apparently, Gen. Riggs was forced to retire as a result of his contradiction of the US government position regarding the troop strength that needs to be sent to Iraq and Afghanistan for support. The troop size was too small compared to the ones sent earlier.
Back in 2006, Gen. Riggs is one among the retired generals of the US military that had come out calling for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, US Secretary of Defense because of the way he was handling the Iraq War.
The generals have a lot of things to say to Rumsfeld. According to General Swannack, he does not believe that Rumsfeld is the right person to fight the war because of his complete failure in managing the war against Saddam. General Riggs said on public radio that he had brainwashed the civilian administrators of the war with a culture of insolence needing the military advices only when it satisfies their agenda.
An array of generals who have been in service for decades have been calling out to people at the Pentagon because the soldiers in Iraq are still paying for their mistakes with their blood. Three special operations had been sent to contain Iraq. The Operation Desert Storm, Operation Desert Fox and now the Iraqi Operation Freedom and two of which have failed to capture Saddam Hussein and allowed him to stay in power. The last one was a war where soldiers are sent undermanned and had resulted to more casualties than the first two operations.
Rumsfeld is not the only person who had made mistakes. There are more people like him that will follow suit. There will be more bloodshed that will come. Unless people at the higher echelons will start listening to more experience military men nothing will happen. The country will be haunted by the ghosts it had created. Soldiers will continue to die and get wounded. Worst, their country is an ungrateful country that relies on its public image. They only know their soldiers when they need them. When they return home, they do not take care of them.
Just look at the soldiers who came from their Vietnam tour. It was not their choice to be deployed in Vietnam. Yet, they served in the war for their country. When they got home they were not welcomed by the people or the nation they believed they had served. They were treated as if they were criminals who went out there killing people. And those who have been vocal about their opinions had become controversial.
The soldiers sent to Iraq are far better. They were welcomed when they came back after the first and the second operation but were these missions really successful with Saddam still at large? How many more need to die with a war that do not belong to them?
With Iraqi Operation Freedom, finally Saddam was toppled down at the expense of more deaths and wounded. It had been eight years since the campaign had started and still deaths and wounded soldiers are piling up. What more do the country need from Iraq to continue risking the lives of their soldiers?
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