A bit more about the person " Paul Rieckhoff " of your last article posted here,
Some thoughts on Paul Rieckhoff
May 03, 2004
silentrunning.tv
Paul Rieckhoff is a Lieutenant with the New York National Guard, who recently returned from 10 months service in Iraq. Of late, he has become an outspoken critic of US policy in Iraq.
From what I've seen of his statements, he comes across as earnest, thoughtful, and he actually makes some cogent points.
He's allowed himself to be used by, or willfully aligned himself with, the Democratic efforts to defeat President Bush. Ostensibly, he has done this in order to gain a platform from which his views may be heard. As class president of his class at Amherst, Lt. Rieckhoff (yes, he is still a member of the NY Army Guard), Lt. Rieckhoff is certainly aware of what he is doing.
Is he emulating the path of the man he supports? Return from conflict, and speak out about your government's policies to gain personal acclaim and notoriety? Possibly, but to his credit, he has confined his observations to the policy arena, and has not broken faith with his fellow service members by leveling reckless charges about their conduct during the current conflict. On the contrary, he praises the efforts of his fellow service members, and claims that his concerns are motivated out of loyalty to them, in the interests of allowing them to do their jobs.
A convenient issue. The points that Lt. Rieckhoff raises are in and of themselves probably valid to a point - however, on closer examination, many of them don't bear up as being much more than the standard, approved DNC messages of 'there was no plan', mixed with first person anecdotal observations of supply problems during the push to Baghdad. And that of someone in the milieu of post-liberation Baghdad, in a situation which was not fully foreseen by the planners of the invasion. Lt. Rieckhoff professes an awareness of von Clauswitz's observations about war - citing the statement that war is an extension of politics by other means. He conveniently ignores another observation from the Prussian - that no plan survives initial contact with the enemy - with the point being that you often have to make it up as you go along, and that improvisation and adaptability are indispensable talents.
Rieckhoff complains that his soldiers were being asked to do tasks that they were not trained for, that the job was for someone else to do. This, despite his apparent pride in the work he and his men were in the midst of accomplishing when 60 Minutes interviewed him while he was still in country -
Rieckhoff was president of his class at Amherst College, went to Wall Street, and joined the National Guard for a challenge. He says he found it: “I don’t think the American public understands that there’s much more going on here besides IED attacks. Those are horrible and we all mourn the loss of life. But every day there’s an incredible amount of stuff going that doesn't get reported because it’s not sensational. The fact that school supplies are delivered or there are hospitals open - that stuff is incredibly important for every member of this local community.”
What does Rieckhoff now think of the war?
“I think we’ve made incredible strides. This is the hard part. This is the road nobody has gone down before and the U.S. is breaking some new ground here,” says Rieckhoff. “It’s going to be a difficult struggle. Germany wasn’t repaired in four months. Japan wasn’t repaired in four months. It’s going to take time to reestablish this entire government, this entire country. But I think it has enormous potential. And i think the sky’s the limit for the people of Iraq.”
Rieckhoff claims that he was restrained by his active status as to what he could and could not say - but I seriously doubt that anyone was pushing the young Lieutenant to give a pep rally speech to visiting CBS reporters.
The mask slipped somewhat today, during Rieckhoff's session on This Week with George Stephanopoulos. During the interview, Rieckhoff stated his opinion that part of the reason he was doing this was that the burden was unfairly being borne for this war by the socio-economic underclass. He mentioned that the rest of America was not bearing their share of the burden, and opined that if it called for raising taxes, then so be it.
Socio-economic underclass? Raise taxes to pay for it? I'm suspicious of his overall agenda by these statements, which were arrived at following a rehash of the complaints that up-armored Hummers, and insufficient body armor is made available to the troops.
So color me suspicious of this man, coming to us trying to pass off his tale dressed up in the cloak of a soldier disappointed that he and his troops lacked the support he felt they deserved, or were misused in their task by their leadership. And color me concerned as well, as the Lieutenant stated on This Week that he has been agitating and organizing within his battalion this message he spreads. He should perhaps tread lightly - it is one thing to speak his mind in public, and allow people to draw their own conclusions, make up their own minds. It is quit another for an officer of a military organization to use his position to persuade his fellow servicemen to vote one way or another.
The term most commonly used for fomenting discontent in the ranks for leadership is harsh - mutiny. While all the details of exactly what sort of organizing and agitating the young Lieutenant has been doing within his unit aren't clear - political agitation, which it appears to be at the least, is not a lawful or ethical use of his position. |
