Generals Anxious About US Coup?

The recent spate of generals criticisng the war on Iraq and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in particular, raise some interesting questions.

Some pundits on the Right have suggested that these generals are self-serving hypocrites who are hawking their recently published books. The misstatement of fact in these pundits' remarks is that only one general, I believe, is actually "hawking a book": Gen. Zinni. The others have not written books as far I remember.

What these generals are expressing is a growing sense of impotence in the face of processes outside their control. Some critics of the Bush administration have spoken about a coup d'etat by the military. As I have argued before, that coup may have already occurred--but from the neocon camp. ...

I have not read the recent Harper's magazine article that takes up exactly this point. The title is suggests that it is "the unthinkable," but as Jodi @ I Cite reports, the third section explores the fact that a coup has already occurred.

The article is comprised of a dialog between military academics and former military officers. According to Jodi (quoting from the article):

The question that arises is whether, in fact, we're not already experiencing what is in essence a creeping coup d'etat. But it's not people in uniform who are seizing power. It's militarized civilians, who conceive of the world as such a dangerous place that military power had to predominate, that constitutional constraints on the military need to be loosened.

It is this reality, I believe that the generals coming out against Cheney/Rumsfeld are concerned about. They have couched their terms in military speak and particular criticisms, yet I think behind their remarks is a growing anxiety that things are not right and out of joint in the US Defense establishment.

It is their specific experience with the conditions on the gorund and in the air that make their criticisms valiud. While we hear only snippets and disconnected stories about Iraq, contractor corruption, troops overkill, and the situation inside the Defense establishment, they know the corruption, venality, and motivations driving those they served.

I believe that these generals are facing the despair that consumed and led to suicide a West Point military ethics professor who volunteered for Iraq. After several months on duty, his fellow soldiers found his body with a gunshot to the head. Next to him was a four-page letter to his superiors that had the following words:

"I cannot support a msn [mission] that leads to corruption, human rights abuse and liars. I am sullied. I came to serve honorably and feel dishonored.

"Death before being dishonored any more."

I think these words speak volumes about the present crisis the republic faces. The generals who are now critiquing the present administration have their suspicions perhaps, are reluctant to come right out and say it, but I do think that the coup has happened and "it will not be televised."