Friday, September 14, 2007

Do We Have The Will To Win? -- Linda Chavez -- GOPUSA

Linda Chavez wonders whether Americans have the stomach for a long war--a good question, considering the nitwits that our fellow citizens continue to elect. What would have happened if the Senate had treated "Ike" the way it treated General Petraeus this week? Maybe Ike wouldn't have kept Patton on such a short leash...!

Sadly, the Senate's behavior is not--entirely--without precedent. Consider General Curtis E. LeMay USAF, head of the Strategic Air Command and subsequently Chief of Staff of the Air Force. The world thinks he was a power-mad tyrant, and for no better reason than that he was the head of SAC for all those years, and made SAC what it was.

And I'm also reminded of the way Hollywood began to treat four-star generals, beginning in 1965 with Burt Lancaster's ultimately unflattering portrait of an Air Force Chief of Staff (and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs). In fact, that committee hearing, and especially Senator Hillary Clinton's behavior, reminded me of that scene in which Burt Lancaster, in his four-star Air Force glory, has to state the obvious to a gaggle of geese--excuse me, Senators--who can't stand to hear it.