"There's No Reason Why [Iraq] Shouldn't Be A Walkover"

Barack Obama's capmain co-chair, Gen. Merrill A. "Tony" McPeak (Ret.), is in the news with his comic thrust tagging Bill Clinton as Joe McCarthy.

But the Dark Captain has dug up a classic interview with Barack's campaign co-chairman; this is from 2003, just after US troops had entered Iraq:

Is time on the United States' side in this battle?

Yeah. I really think time is on our side here. This is a fragile society, a little old one-town country, the size of Nebraska, maybe a little bigger, with the GDP about half the Army budget. So if this is a hard problem, we ought to get ourselves some new generals. I mean there's no reason why this shouldn't be a walkover.

And a bit later we get the General's timeframe:

Is Iraq the last country we confront in the Middle East?

Who wants to volunteer to get cross-ways with us? We'll be there a century, hopefully. If it works right.

I'll tell you one thing we should not hope for (is) a democratic Iraq. When I hear the president talking about democracy, the last thing we should want is an election in Iraq. We're not very popular. So I don't think we'll see any open elections in Iraq for a long time.

Hopefully over time they can be brought along like Japan and Germany -- Japan and Germany were relatively easy, I think, and South Korea.

The Captain has a question:

Isn’t this the exact argument McCain has made repeatedly, and which Obama derides as “a hundred-years war”? ...

This should raise some eyebrows on the Obama campaign’s willful deception on this point. Didn’t McPeak bother to explain to Obama the exact same reasoning he had in March 2003, at the start of the war? Did Obama not bother to listen?

I can handle this without even vexing the Obama spinners - Obama was not in the briefing that Sunday when McPeak made his controversial remarks.

In any case, McPeak is a part of the American story; Barack can no more disown him than he can disown his own grandmother, who made comments about the war effort against the Japanese that made Barack cringe.

MORE:  McPeak has been out in front of Barack for a while:

The Obama campaign Friday launched its own television ad in Texas, titled "Gulf."

The ad, which first aired before the Iowa caucuses, features retired Air Force Gen. Merrill McPeak, a former combat pilot who was the service's highest-ranking uniformed officer during the first Gulf War.

"As a combat pilot and Air Force chief during Desert Storm, lives depended on the judgments I made," McPeak says in the spot. "And judgment is what we need from our next commander in chief. Barack Obama opposed this war in Iraq from the start, showing insight and courage others did not."

McPeak backed John Kerry in the 2004 presidential race.

McPeak humiliated himself in early February with some stray comments about Hillary that were promptly repudiated and withdrawn.

And here we learn that McPeak "publicly opposed the current Iraq campaign from the start".  Gee, a retired member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff opposed the war and the Times missed it.  But James Fallows of The Atlantic confirms it, as of Nov 2002 anyway.

This is from April 2006:

Though some retired senior officers are critical about the conduct of the war, that doesn't mean they want a quick pullout.

Gen. Merrill McPeak, retired Air Force chief of staff, says if anything the number of US troops there needs to be doubled - to around the figure Shinseki predicted would be needed three years ago - if Iraq is to become truly secure and democratic.

General McPeak lost friends when he started speaking out against the war several years ago. Now, he says, "everybody is sending me e-mails and cards and letters saying 'I wish I had seen it the way you saw it from the beginning,' and I've gotten some of those friends back."

McPeak participated in a pre-surge panel for Rolling Stone handicapping different scenarios (all grim).  Snippets:

The war in Iraq isn't over yet, but - surge or no surge - the United States has already lost. That's the grim consensus of a panel of experts assembled by Rolling Stone to assess the future of Iraq. "Even if we had a million men to go in, it's too late now," says retired four-star Gen. Tony McPeak, who served on the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War. "Humpty Dumpty can't be put back together again."

...Best-Case Scenario: Civil War in Iraq and a Stronger al Qaeda

...Gen. Tony McPeak: It's not a question of whether we're going to leave Iraq - it's a question of when. And everybody in Iraq knows that. So they say, "Fine. We'll stock arms and wait for you guys to leave. And then we'll do what we want."

...Most Likely Scenario: Years of Ethnic Cleansing and War With Iran

McPeak: We're going to see a full-scale intercommunal war that may not burn out until one side is all dead, all gone. The Kurds would like to sit on the sidelines, but I don't see how they stay out, especially up in the Kirkuk area, where they sit on a lot of oil. This is going to be ethnic cleansing like we had in Kosovo or Bosnia - but written big, in capital letters. And we can't stop it.

...Worst-Case Scenario: World War III

...McPeak: The worst case? Iraq's Sunnis begin to be backed into a corner, then the Sunni governments - Jordan, Saudi Arabia - jump in. Israel sees that it's threatened by these developments. Once the Israelis get involved, then everybody piles on. And you've got nuclear events going off in the Middle East. That would be about as bad as it could get.

So McPeak was committed to defeat, as of March 2007 anyway.  He's got the right candidate.

Comments

[PaulL]

McPeak doesn't seem any better at making predictions than Dick Morris.

It's too bad so many of these ex-military people get involved in partisan politics and can't keep their mouths from running.

[SteveMG]

Barack can no more disown him than he can disown his own grandmother, who made comments about the war effort against the Japanese that made Barack cringe.

Somebody's going to whack you one of these days.

Good and hard.

Deservedly.

[Soylent Red]

With all due respect to the General and his branch.

Air Force generals are, by nature, opposed to things not being led by primarily Air Force generals. If it doesn't feature a high degree of whiz bang, the Air Force is skeptical.

Bet he was all in for bombing the hell out of plywood mockups in Serbia though.

[clarice]

Soylent--It's not bad enough you have the bald man onto you?

[hit and run]

SteveMG:
Somebody's going to whack you one of these days.

Good and hard.

Deservedly.

Oh, I would pay good money to see it!

PUK's money that is...

[Other Tom]

McPeak was accustomed to running his mouth while still in uniform. The man has long been understood by those in the know to be a dolt.

Let him go on Hannity & Colmes, and let the nation laugh.

A candidacy (hell, a party) melts down before our eyes.

[hit and run]

Other Tom:
A candidacy (hell, a party) melts down before our eyes.

Yup, magnifying glasses held up to ants at the right angle in the sunlight tend to do that.

BTW, you still on the road?

Papa hit and run is in SD as we speak. Having a good time. A really good time.

[ben]

It looks like McPeak, after applying the Peter Principle in the Air Force, has quickly done the same in the Obama campaign.

[clarice]

OT, I do wish you lived here so we could drink together in honor of this spectacle. And think of thid--how many millions of dollars have been pissed away by these clowns in the process? ROFL

[MarkJ]

Yeah, I have less than fond memories of General McPeak (I retired in November 1995). This pic of McPeak wearing his "Starfleet Command" uniform pretty much says where his head was at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Gen_Merrill_McPeak_1993.jpg

What can you say about a guy whose idea of an updated uniform was to ensure the Air Force looked more like...the Navy?

[Other Tom]

No Hit, we got home last night after trip from hell through O'Hare. I'm right here in Coronado. Tantalizing thought that we could rendezvous so I could buy you a series of shooters...

And Clarice, we spent four lovely nights in a bed and breakfast in Alexandria last week while visiting my brother. My sister and I went to the magnificent house on Janney's Lane that we lived in from 1946 to 1948, knocked on the door and gave the current (very gracious) lady of the house a tour of the grounds, complete with details of how it was back then. She may have been pretending, but she sure seemed interested. Everyone should do something like that at some point. And I have just promised myself that I'll never go to that neck of the woods again without pre-arranging a meeting with you.

[Faith+1]

He didn't make us look like the Navy. He made us look like Delta Airlines. And uniform changes were his biggest contribution to the USAF. He set the Air Force back ten years with his boneheaded decisions and he did everything he could to lose the first Gulf War. I know Horner and Rutherford thought he was a complete tool and Rutherford often complained his career seemed to be spent cleaning up after McPeak's messes.

[hit and run]

OT:
Tantalizing thought that we could rendezvous so I could buy you a series of shooters...

Papa hit and run refers to my dad, if that wasn't clear. If it were me, I would already be at your doorstep, cab driving off, nearly passed out, cops not far behind.

[RichatUF]

McPeak says this-

Hopefully over time they can be brought along like Japan and Germany -- Japan and Germany were relatively easy, I think, and South Korea.

Where have I heard this before Pres. Bush's highly criticized speech to the VFW.

graf-

Ultimately, the United States prevailed in World War II, and we have fought two more land wars in Asia. And many in this hall were veterans of those campaigns. Yet even the most optimistic among you probably would not have foreseen that the Japanese would transform themselves into one of America's strongest and most steadfast allies, or that the South Koreans would recover from enemy invasion to raise up one of the world's most powerful economies, or that Asia would pull itself out of poverty and hopelessness as it embraced markets and freedom.

[Topsecretk9]

this is a no duh general observation, but I am always shocked at how tax-paid employees think they they have the power of elected government and sort of their only paid for act is to defy a republican president.

It's a kind of bribery. Bribery of the tax payer.

"I'll finally stop and won't fuck with your national security taxpayer, if you install a Democrat!" says gov't employee.

[Neo]

So I wonder how McPeak and Obama will set with the 57% of Americans say U.S. probably will win Iraq war.

[Neo]

Was John O. Brennan part of a setup to help Barack Obama ?
That backfired because State pre-empted it ?

[qrstuv]

Gosh, Iraq had open elections a few years ago. Did that make any impression on the good general?

[Other Tom]

Mark this statement well: This will not be the last time McPeak embarrasses Obama.

[clarice]

Thanks, OT. We;d treat you right.My husband and his brothers found their father's house in Vancouver a few years ago and developed a warm friendship with the then-owners who even had a pic from an historical book of the house from the time their father lived in it. (It's now in the Red Light district though it is an area in the process of gentrification but then is was considered a fine neighborhood and the house the work of a well-regarded local architect.)

[MikeS]

General McPeak, Samantha Powers, Rev. Wright, Austan Goolsbee; for the first time in my life I am really proud of a Dem candidate and his advisers.

[fdcol63]

This interview that McPeak did with Third Planet Report, by Alan Graf with www.hippelawyer.com, is pretty revealing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCESFCrcMl0

Frightening, really, if Obama wins.

[Patrick R. Sullivan]

"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said.

In addition to being a lousy General, he's a lousy historian. Thanks to Stanton Evans' last book, we know that McCarthy didn't accuse any 'good Americans of being traitors'. He was entirely correct in his choices of targets.

[Other Tom]

Much as I have always loathed Bill Clinton, any suggestion that what he said about his wife and McCain somehow questioned Obama's patriotism is just plain nutty.

There is an increasingly clear picture of Obama surrounding himself with people of very questionable judgment and political views. He can only go to the disavowal well so many times.

[SteveMG]

"I grew up, I was going to college when Joe McCarthy was accusing good Americans of being traitors, so I've had enough of it," McPeak said.

Well, McPeak entered college in 1957 (link).

And McCarthy was censured, and his career over, in 1954 (link).

I didn't originally start to check his statement out; I was just curious as to the precise period when McCarthy was at his acme.

Big deal; memories falter after 40 years.

[Rick Ballard]

Steve - from your link "he entered San Diego State College where he earned a B.A. in economics in 1957". His birth year was 1936 which would support an entry year of 1954. He would have been hellish fast to enter and graduate in the same year.

The sentence is poorly written but I think the proper interpretation is "he earned a B.A. in economics in 1957".

[Jerry Dove]

McPeak was a buffoon as a General and is a buffoon now. He nearly ruined the Air Force with his F-22 and uniform obsessions. The Air Force mortgaged its future for the F-22 and gave up quite a bit of real combat capability - the kind you might need to fight a competent adversary. The Air Force Chief of Staff is not the air component commander in any war or operation. Thank goodness Lt Gen Chuck Horner was the air commander during Desert Storm for the combatant commander, Gen Schwartzkoff. Being the administrative head of the Air Force doesn't sound quite as sexy on the old resume.

[Other Tom]

Associated Press:

"WASHINGTON - Prominent supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on Sunday both faulted Obama's campaign for allowing a retired general and backer of the Illinois senator to equate comments by Clinton's husband — which appeared to question Obama's patriotism — to McCarthyism."

While traveling last week I managed to find a list of the ten retired admirals and generals who were pictured with Obama. McPeak and a former deputy CNO named Nathman were the only two four-stars. Most were one-star (Brigadier Generals).

[cossack]

McPeak is crazy like a fox. He presided over the largest drawdown of combat airpower since the start of the AVF. So what is he remembered for? Managing to make everybody mad at him over a uniform change.

[Paddy]

McPeak, like several others who were forced into early retirement and/or relieved of their commands, has a credibility problem. Wesley Clark comes to mind.

He is proof of the Peter Principle. He was promoted one or levels beyond his competence.

[Rollerball]

Tony McPeak was the most hated General officer I've ever heard mentioned in my 20 years in USAF. Between a huge drawdown in personnel and the gross errors in judgment on the uniform (immediately overturned by Gen Fogleman when he took over, thank God), McPeak was (and continues to be) just a joke to most USAF officers. I wonder, is his motivation to get a Secretarial position by backing the Democratic party or is he just insane? McPeak doesn't just have a credibility problem. When his name is mentioned, it's the ANTI-credibility.

[lynn]

And Clarice, we spent four lovely nights in a bed and breakfast in Alexandria last week while visiting my brother. My sister and I went to the magnificent house on Janney's Lane that we lived in from 1946 to 1948, knocked on the door and gave the current (very gracious) lady of the house a tour of the grounds, complete with details of how it was back then. She may have been pretending, but she sure seemed interested. Everyone should do something like that at some point. And I have just promised myself that I'll never go to that neck of the woods again without pre-arranging a meeting with you.

I'm searching for the house I lived in as a kid. On Janneys Lane. The owner at the time was Stewart Miller.