Opinion! A Phony Hero for a Phony War

[Gerald]

FASTIDIOUSNESS is never a good sign in a general officer. Though strutting military peacocks go back to Alexander’s time, our first was MacArthur, who seemed at times to care more about how much gold braid decorated the brim of his cap than he did about how many bodies he left on beachheads across the Pacific. Next came Westmoreland, with his starched fatigues in Vietnam. In our time, Gen. David H. Petraeus has set the bar high. Never has so much beribboned finery decorated a general’s uniform since Al Haig passed through the sally ports of West Point on his way to the White House.

“What’s wrong with a general looking good?” you may wonder. I would propose that every moment a general spends on his uniform jacket is a moment he’s not doing his job, which is supposed to be leading soldiers in combat and winning wars — something we, and our generals, stopped doing about the time that MacArthur gold-braided his way around the stalemated Korean War.

And now comes “Dave” Petraeus, and the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. No matter how good he looked in his biographer-mistress’s book, it doesn’t make up for the fact that we failed to conquer the countries we invaded, and ended up occupying undefeated nations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/op...-war.html?_r=0

Note: November 16, 2012

[Cybermat47]

Too true.

For some reason, MacArthur strikes me as being douchey.

[the_tyrant]

I always thought the idea was so that the general is protected against assassins with a set of chainmail

But still, its either this or the Genghis Khan model, aka "let him decorate himself with the heads of his enemies"

[Karle94]

Should`t Patton fit in there somewhere?

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by Karle94

Should`t Patton fit in there somewhere?

He's busy beating up trauma victims

[u crank]

THE problem was that he hadn’t led his own Army to win anything even approximating a victory in either Iraq or Afghanistan. It’s not just General Petraeus. The fact is that none of our generals have led us to a victory since men like Patton and my grandfather, Lucian King Truscott Jr., stormed the beaches of North Africa and southern France with blood in their eyes and military murder on their minds.

Those generals, in my humble opinion, were nearly psychotic in their drive to kill enemy soldiers and subjugate enemy nations.

Yea. That's what we need. Even more dead Muslims.

[Karle94]

No, what we need is dead terrorists. Preferably all of them.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Too true.

For some reason, MacArthur strikes me as being douchey.

Originally Posted by Karle94

Should`t Patton fit in there somewhere?

cf 1932 Bonus March

And you can throw Ike in there too.

[Gerald]

Many mention Al Qaeda, in their terror speculation (among all others) and of course they are real, but the threats of terrorists, they grow like mushrooms, and terror cells and must be fought with long-term intelligence information throughout the world, so that all countries pursue the same target.

[August]

Originally Posted by Karle94

Should`t Patton fit in there somewhere?

Compare for yourself. George Patton in dress uniform:


General Petraeus



General Eisenhower


And just for comparison:

Field marshal Goering

[Cybermat47]

Originally Posted by August

Field marshal Goering

Look at the neck!

P.S. He wasn't a Field Marshal. He was promoted to Reichmarschall, second only to Oberkammando der Wehrmacht (Over-Commander [of] the Armed Forces) - Hitler.

[Jimbuna]

here's me thinking he was simply an overweight madman

[August]

Originally Posted by Cybermat47

Look at the neck!

P.S. He wasn't a Field Marshal. He was promoted to Reichmarschall, second only to Oberkammando der Wehrmacht (Over-Commander [of] the Armed Forces) - Hitler.

Reichmarschall, Field Marshal, Doorman at the Ritz Carlton, whatever, he still wasn't as much of a peacock as Petraeus.

If it were up to me I would limit ribbons to three rows, qualification badges to two only.