2007-04-20 04:27:33 · 8 answers · asked by Linda G 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
He is following the steps of the great military commanders before him like General Douglas MacArthur, who in his last statement to congress said:
"The world has turned over many times since I took the oath on the plain at West Point, and the hopes and dreams have long since vanished, but I still remember the refrain of one of the most popular barracks ballads of that day which proclaimed most proudly that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.
And like the old soldier of that ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Good-by. "
2007-04-20 05:46:03 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
General H. Norman Schwartzkopf, now in retirement, HAS served as a military analyst, most recently for Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Following the Invasion, he did what ex-General and Staff Officers... AND EX-Presidents are SUPPOSED to do DURING a war / conflict: KEEP THEIR DAMNED OPINIONS TO THEMSELVES.
In an interview just PRIOR to the Invasion of Iraqi (January2003) with the Washington Post, he DID critique the SECDEF's Intel and Planning :
"What is postwar Iraq going to look like, with the Kurds and the Sunnis and the Shiites? That's a huge question, to my mind. It really should be part of the overall campaign plan." (Rumsfeld said last week that post-Saddam planning "is a tough question and we're spending a lot of time on it, let me assure you." But the Pentagon hasn't disclosed how long it expects to have to occupy Iraq, or how many troops might be required to do that.)
"The Rumsfeld thing . . . that's what comes up," when he calls old Army friends in the Pentagon, he says. "When he makes his comments, it appears that he disregards the Army," Schwarzkopf says. "He gives the perception when he's on TV that he is the guy driving the train and everybody else better fall in line behind him -- or else."
2007-04-20 05:11:49 · answer #2 · answered by mariner31 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Schwartzkopt had always been on the same side as Collin Powell on American military policy. Even if he never retired, he would have eventually fallen from grace with GWB and Rumsfeld in the same way Collin Powell had.
2007-04-20 12:01:03 · answer #3 · answered by roadwarrior 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Gen S was one heck of a guy and since he retired has been a model citizen and let the Army run itself with out public criticizm. 3 Cheers to Stormin Norman, A real gentleman.
Retired USAF SNCO( Chuck Horner's Boy)
2007-04-20 04:51:04 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
He is enjoying private life. He knows to keep quiet because he is not running the show.
2007-04-20 05:29:15 · answer #5 · answered by c1523456 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He does what all retired Generals and ex-Presidents SHOULD do.
He keeps his mouth shut.
2007-04-20 04:30:22 · answer #6 · answered by A Balrog of Morgoth 4 · 3⤊ 0⤋
He is not an idiot, and he want not to intervene in this affair.
2007-04-20 04:30:50 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
hes a "paid consultant" now...no pay, no consultation.
2007-04-20 04:35:49 · answer #8 · answered by David B 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋