I've Got Reader(s)

A good friend of mine and one of the foremost intellectuals of these times--hence, no chance he'll get tenure--sent me this article while I was busily avoiding responsibility in favor of sinful Mardi Gras-ing. LA Weekly: News: Soldier for the Truth is a Marc Cooper interview with Karen Kwiatkowski, a twenty year veteran of the Air Force and policy analyst for Near Eastern Affairs. Here's the disturbing conclusion of the interview:

You gave your life to the military, you voted Republican for many years, you say you served in the Pentagon right up to the outbreak of war. What does it feel like to be out now, publicly denouncing your old bosses?

Know what it feels like? It feels like duty. That’s what it feels like. I’ve thought about it many times. You know, I spent 20 years working for something that — at least under this administration — turned out to be something I wasn’t working for. I mean, these people have total disrespect for the Constitution. We swear an oath, military officers and NCOs alike swear an oath to uphold the Constitution. These people have no respect for the Constitution. The Congress was misled, it was lied to. At a very minimum that is a subversion of the Constitution. A pre-emptive war based on what we knew was not a pressing need is not what this country stands for.

What I feel now is that I’m not retired. I still have a responsibility to do my part as a citizen to try and correct the problem.

Bad Attitudes also found this interview, and links to further stories of interest.

And you can read more of Kwiatkowski's opinions over the last year and a half over at David Hackworth's site Soldiers for the Truth. She was the anonymous author of Insider Notes from the Pentagon. Here are two archived columns.

Summary: at least some folks close to the center realized what a lie it all was. To wit:

12 December 2002

Whatever it is we are doing… making war on terrorism, seeking dominant control of Mideast and Central Asian oil reserves, or conducting a get-even vendetta against folks like Saddam whom we helped to power only a few decades ago … word is out it’s going to take a long time.

The Vice President is reported to have referred to this adventure in the sand as a Hundred Years’ War. Last June, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon used the phrase; Robert Novak and others mention it, and it seems to have legs in the political arena, especially in “let’s reshape the Middle East in our image” circles.

As a product of the public schools, I don’t know much about history, so I had to study up on the first Hundred Years’ War, running from 1337 to 1453. Well, that’s actually more like 116 years, but if we can’t fudge numbers, we shouldn’t be working at the Pentagon.

I have to say, those smart guys leading us to war picked a good analogy, that’s for sure!

Think about that the next time we're told that "democracy is just around the corner" in either Iraq or Afghanistan.