Pace’s view was backed up by British intelligence officials who said the extent of the Iranian government’s involvement in activities inside Iraq by a small number of Revolutionary Guards was “far from clear”.
Hillary Mann, the National Security Council’s main Iran expert until 2004, said Pace’s repudiation of the administration’s claims was a sign of grave discontent at the top.
“He is a very serious and a very loyal soldier,” she said. “It is extraordinary for him to have made these comments publicly, and it suggests there are serious problems between the White House, the National Security Council and the Pentagon.” (4)
[Ed. In this connection it may be well to remember some of Gen. Pace’s other pronouncements, as gathered together and published in a 2006 article.]
It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral. …
[Soldiers] will be held accountable for the decisions they make. So they should in fact not obey the illegal and immoral orders to use weapons of mass destruction. …
I believe that a lot of the commanders, in fact, do recognize that they do have a free choice in [the matter of the use of WMDs], that they should not execute orders that are illegal and immoral, such as any order to use any kind of a weapon of mass destruction. …
[Though they are normally obliged to carry out an order of their superior] they can still not commit crimes against humanity. They can still not execute any kinds of orders that might tell them to use weapons of mass destruction. …
[Though their decisions may affect their careers,] they still have very clear choices to make, and their choices will have major impact, both on the troops who look to them for leadership right now and on their own personal fate when this is all over. (5)
25 February 2007. Global Research quotes Vice-President Cheney remarking that he “understood … the Democrats in the US were riding public opposition to the war that could end up prejudicing their leadership credentials [but] the mood could easily shift if there was another terrorist attack.” (6)
23 March 2007. 9/11 Truth activist Webster Tarpley comments that “an incident involving 15 British Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel who were taken into custody by the Iranians … was a part of Cheney’s winter-spring war drive, which peaked with two US B-1 bombers deliberately violating Iranian airspace over the city of Abadan in oil-rich Khuzestan province on March 31. This crisis was defused by a mobilization of persons of good will around the world, with Russian President Putin and the RIA-Novosti news agency playing a critical role. In particular, a pointed March 28 warning from Putin to Bush about attacking Iran created enough uncertainty in Washington about how Moscow might respond to nuclear aggression against Iran so that cooler heads than Cheney’s prevailed.” (7)
10 April 2006. Three retired generals call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation. The New York Times interviews former operations director of the Joint Chief of Staff, Marine Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold (ret). Justifying their defiance of the administration, Gen. Newbold warns that a leader's responsibility "is to give voice to those who can't - or don't have the opportunity to – speak."
"Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important."
The article adds that his generation of officers thought it had learned from Vietnam that "we must never again stand by quietly while those ignorant of and casual about war lead us into another one and then mismanage the conduct of it," General Newbold wrote. (8)
April 13, 2007. The New York Times reported that the number of retired generals calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to retire had reached five (it would eventually reach six). (9)
13 April 2007. TBR News says that Pentagon reports point to an exploding rate of desertions and a very strong possibility of mutiny among troops. (10)
Hillary Mann, the National Security Council’s main Iran expert until 2004, said Pace’s repudiation of the administration’s claims was a sign of grave discontent at the top.
“He is a very serious and a very loyal soldier,” she said. “It is extraordinary for him to have made these comments publicly, and it suggests there are serious problems between the White House, the National Security Council and the Pentagon.” (4)
[Ed. In this connection it may be well to remember some of Gen. Pace’s other pronouncements, as gathered together and published in a 2006 article.]
It is the absolute responsibility of everybody in uniform to disobey an order that is either illegal or immoral. …
[Soldiers] will be held accountable for the decisions they make. So they should in fact not obey the illegal and immoral orders to use weapons of mass destruction. …
I believe that a lot of the commanders, in fact, do recognize that they do have a free choice in [the matter of the use of WMDs], that they should not execute orders that are illegal and immoral, such as any order to use any kind of a weapon of mass destruction. …
[Though they are normally obliged to carry out an order of their superior] they can still not commit crimes against humanity. They can still not execute any kinds of orders that might tell them to use weapons of mass destruction. …
[Though their decisions may affect their careers,] they still have very clear choices to make, and their choices will have major impact, both on the troops who look to them for leadership right now and on their own personal fate when this is all over. (5)
25 February 2007. Global Research quotes Vice-President Cheney remarking that he “understood … the Democrats in the US were riding public opposition to the war that could end up prejudicing their leadership credentials [but] the mood could easily shift if there was another terrorist attack.” (6)
23 March 2007. 9/11 Truth activist Webster Tarpley comments that “an incident involving 15 British Royal Navy and Royal Marines personnel who were taken into custody by the Iranians … was a part of Cheney’s winter-spring war drive, which peaked with two US B-1 bombers deliberately violating Iranian airspace over the city of Abadan in oil-rich Khuzestan province on March 31. This crisis was defused by a mobilization of persons of good will around the world, with Russian President Putin and the RIA-Novosti news agency playing a critical role. In particular, a pointed March 28 warning from Putin to Bush about attacking Iran created enough uncertainty in Washington about how Moscow might respond to nuclear aggression against Iran so that cooler heads than Cheney’s prevailed.” (7)
10 April 2006. Three retired generals call for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation. The New York Times interviews former operations director of the Joint Chief of Staff, Marine Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold (ret). Justifying their defiance of the administration, Gen. Newbold warns that a leader's responsibility "is to give voice to those who can't - or don't have the opportunity to – speak."
"Enlisted members of the armed forces swear their oath to those appointed over them; an officer swears an oath not to a person but to the Constitution. The distinction is important."
The article adds that his generation of officers thought it had learned from Vietnam that "we must never again stand by quietly while those ignorant of and casual about war lead us into another one and then mismanage the conduct of it," General Newbold wrote. (8)
April 13, 2007. The New York Times reported that the number of retired generals calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to retire had reached five (it would eventually reach six). (9)
13 April 2007. TBR News says that Pentagon reports point to an exploding rate of desertions and a very strong possibility of mutiny among troops. (10)
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