1115.org

Do we who are lucky enough to be alive in this second half of the first decade of the 21st century actually have the privilege of witnessing an old-fashioned, Soviet-style purge of the generals in the land of the brave and the home of the free? Another of those dangerous hypothetical questions, no doubt. But seasoned Kremlin-watchers White House watchers can’t help hypothesizing:

The shift in policy is likely to be accompanied by a shuffle of top American generals in Iraq. Army Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, has submitted plans to go ahead with a retirement that is months overdue. And the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, has indicated he may not stay much longer than the end of this year.

Silly naïve ignorant me. I somehow thought it was some kind of military tradition that generals in charge of a war didn’t up and retire in the middle, even if retirement was overdue. Some silly notion I had in my head about finishing the mission comes first. Some kind of military noblesse oblige. Kind of like the captain always going down with his ship. (Of course, ships don’t go down anymore, do they?)

As for General Casey’s decision that “he may not stay much longer than the end of this year”, I just don’t know what to say. I don’t imagine that’s his way of resigning from his current post (though not from the Army, apparently). So I just don’t know what to say. Because it couldn’t possibly be that these guys are being pushed aside or pushed upstairs by the new Defense Secretary. Because he’s still Bush’s Defense Secretary. And Bush doesn’t believe in changing generals midstream, does he? Especially when these guys have been absolutely leading us to Victory for more than three years straight. But maybe there are some big shiny medals in the offing, which will remove all doubt as to who is doing what and to whom?