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Saturday, May 03, 2008

The Night of the Generals?

John Aravosis finds this hugely disturbing as a reflection of the thinking of our top military leaders:

Okay, first off, sounds a little bit like he's questioning the fact that we're having elections. This strikes me as inappropriate coming for the uniformed military, or anyone else for that matter. It also sounds like he's cranking up the "scary" in order to help the Republicans win the elections. That's just as inappropriate from a member of our military.

Okay, first off, I think Aravosis is reading a lot into this that isn't there. The article reads to me simply as Mullen giving a hint of how the military is thinking in order to insure a smooth transition to a new administration, and one that is likely to represent a distinct shift in the attitude toward the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I think that's all to the good, and certainly not surprising at all: that's Mullen's job, to think ahead.

I seldom quote Aravosis, although I do link to stories he presents, simply because while what he's reporting is often germane to my interests, he tends to be somewhat shrill and more than a little alarmist. Case in point. Commenting on Aravosis on Republicans is sort of like commenting on Bruce Carroll on Democrats: we already know what he's going to say, we don't even need to know the specific issue.

Read the article, because Aravosis' spin is way out there.

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