10.26.02006 Next, blame the Generals

The Bush administration’s Iraq policy unraveled noticeably this week. The President’s “stay the course” clarification did nothing to reverse growing public skepticism, and the irritation of the war’s defenders was never more palpable than when Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Cheney lashed out at reporters today, demanding that they “back off.”

Fragile unity has dissolved into spreading bickering, blame and endless I-told-you-so revisionism. Liberals are blaming Bush and the Neo-cons. The Conservatives are blaming the Liberals, and the “liberal media” for sapping the American public’s support of the war. As the old Irish saying goes, "Is this a private fight, or can anyone join?" The only party immune from all the finger-pointing is the military. That is about to change.

It is unwise (and perhaps unpatriotic) to criticize the military in time of war, but that is precisely what is about to happen over the next two years as politicians and civilians in the Pentagon seek to shift blame for the mess in Iraq. Generals will go from being sacred cows to sitting ducks. But of course the Brass won’t take the criticism silently, and the result will be a descent into a level of rancor that will make even a Fox reporter blush.

This will go far beyond the still-smouldering post-Vietnam debate, and will carry American democracy into unknown territory. At first, the military will defend itself by proxy, with retired brass doing the talking, but as the debate becomes more heated, officers in uniform will be unable to resist defending themselves directly. And once the debate begins, it will turn into a melee, with politicians and the military aggressively heaping blame and scorn in every direction. Document leaks will turn into floods as all sides put out material to support their case. We will come to joke that the Pentagon is the only ship that leaks from the top -- except for the White House and the Hill.

Expect plenty of collateral damage as both sides lash out at the media, politicians of every stripe, foreign allies and even the American public. In the end, there will be no consensus, just a hardening of resentment and a growing embitterment by the military towards both politicians and civilians. Ominously, the largest effect will be the further unraveling of the already-fraying prohibition of military involvement in the political sphere. If we are not very careful, this debate could be a small step on the road to an American stratocracy.