MORE GENERALS SPEAK OUT

I found more generals that have spoken out about Iraq or the WOT:

This one speaks up about Custer Battles ripping us off in Iraq:

During the trial, retired Brig. Gen. Hugh Tant III told jurors that Custer Battles's performance amounted to "probably the worst I've seen in my 30 years in the Army." Tant had been overseeing the firm's work on the currency conversion contract.

Another one tells us what's really going in with Fredo's WOT:

Thirty new terrorist organizations have emerged since the September 11, 2001, attacks, outpacing U.S. efforts to crush the threat, said Brig. Gen. Robert L. Caslen, the Pentagon's deputy director for the war on terrorism. "We are not killing them faster than they are being created," Gen. Caslen told a gathering at the Woodrow Wilson Center yesterday, warning that the war could take decades to resolve.

Another one speaks on troop levels in Iraq:

DIWANIYAH, Iraq (AP) -- The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces in this country are "stretched," but he said he will only recommend withdrawals based on operational needs.
Gen. George Casey told reporters he had discussed the issue with Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker on Wednesday and that the Army chief of staff believes he can still sustain the mission in Iraq.

Another one about the pre-war "justification":

TAMPA--Norman Schwarzkopf wants to give peace a chance.

The general who commanded U.S. forces in the 1991 Gulf War says he hasn't seen enough evidence to convince him that his old comrades Dick Cheney, Colin Powell and Paul Wolfowitz are correct in moving toward a new war now. He thinks U.N. inspections are still the proper course to follow. He's worried about the cockiness of the U.S. war plan, and even more by the potential human and financial costs of occupying Iraq.

22 speak out against torture:

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Twenty-two high-level retired military officers expressed their concern in a letter to the White House Thursday that the new anti-torture law will not be enforced.

The generals and admirals who signed the letter Thursday, including a former four-star commander of Central Command, said the issue is less about the detainees as it is about the values that the military holds dear.

"Clear and unambiguous implementation will help ensure that our brave men and women in uniform will never again feel that to prevail against the enemy they must risk their honor or the values they fight to protect," the letter states.

Another field general speaks on Iraq:

“A daunting task lies ahead, but I have no doubt you are well-trained,” said Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, V Corps commander since 2003, who spent a tumultuous year in Iraq. He told the soldiers that conditions there have changed, and although ultimately Iraq has a “prosperous future,” its current condition is problematic.

“The country’s on the verge of a civil war,” he said, and told the soldiers the mission now is to transfer responsibility for Iraq stability to Iraqi troops, including what he said had been “neglected police capacity.”

One warns us about the Iraqi forces & infrastructure:


The commander, Lt. Gen. John R. Vines of the Army, warned in an interview on Wednesday that the development of the Defense and Interior Ministries that sustain Iraqi security forces lags behind the fielding and prowess of more than 220,000 Iraqi soldiers and police officers.

"The ability of the ministries to support them, to pay them, to resupply them, provide them with water, ammunition, spare parts and weapons is not as advanced as the competence of the forces in the field," General Vines said at his headquarters here outside of Baghdad, as a new wave of violence gripped Iraq this week. "We must make significant progress in that area before they can conduct independent operations."

General Vines cautioned that other important ministries, like oil and electricity, must also strengthen their operations for the security forces to succeed - and for Iraq to prosper politically and economically.

"The reason it's important to look at areas like governance and infrastructure is because oil is the lifeblood of Iraq," said General Vines, who commands the XVIII Airborne Corps at Fort Bragg, N.C. "If they don't produce enough income to support their security forces, members of those forces could turn to ulterior purposes and could become militias or armed gangs."

A general speaks out on the "Our Strategy for Victory in Iraq":

In a news briefing from Iraq on Friday, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top American military official in charge of training Iraqi troops, surprised some reporters by saying he first saw "Our Strategy for Victory in Iraq" when it was released to the public on Wednesday.

On "cutting and running":

Everything that opponents of a pullout say would happen if the U.S. left Iraq is happening already, says retired Gen. William E. Odom, the head of the National Security Agency during the Reagan administration. So why stay?

On veterans care:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government should strengthen the health care system for veterans, retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar said Saturday in the Democratic Party's weekly radio address.

Speaking on the Veterans Day weekend, the former U.S. military commander in the Middle East said "President Bush has consistently refused to provide enough" money for veterans' health care.


On the National Guard:

WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard has lost so much critical equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan that its ability to respond to a national emergency could be severely hampered, says a government report released Thursday.

Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, told the House Government Reform Committee that the Guard needs $1.3 billion to replace or upgrade radios, helicopters, tactical vehicles, heavy engineering equipment, chemical detection gear and night-vision goggles, which are essential to responding to national emergencies such as the recent Gulf Coast hurricanes and terrorist attacks.

On troop levels in the Mid-East:

The Central Command's Gen. John P. Abizaid, who supervises all U.S. troops in the region, said the broader fight against Islamic extremism required the United States to "reduce our military footprint" across the region and push governments in the Middle East to fight the extremists themselves.

On pre-war planning:

Gen. Downing: And I think there's a lot of truth in the fact that we probably wasted the first 12 months in Iraq because we didn't plan enough for post hostilities.

On the insurgency:

Army Maj. Gen. Joseph J. Taluto, commander of the 22,000-soldier Task Force Liberty ... said, it also is true that the insurgents have become part of the fabric of Iraqi life.

"They are intrinsic, and so it seems like they can act with impunity," Taluto said. "And then they do escalate their activities, so they surge and so on and so forth."


On the strain of war:

WASHINGTON - The war in Iraq is stretching U.S. military forces and equipment toward a "meltdown" that could require force reductions in Iraq by next summer, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Monday.

"The United States Army and Marine Corps are incapable of sustaining this campaign," McCaffrey said, adding that similar stresses are being imposed upon equipment. "We are running our capital fleet into the ground."

"Right now we have 650,000 soldiers on active duty executing missions worldwide, and many of them have met their 24-month cumulative time, so we'll have to address this," Gen. Richard A. Cody testified before the House Armed Services Committee. "We are equipment-challenged right now," Cody said. He said the Army had to draw down "almost all" of its pre-positioned stocks of armored vehicles and other equipment to outfit seven Army Guard brigades for deployment.

On reducing troop levels in Iraq:

While allowing for the possibility that the levels could decrease or increase depending on security conditions and other factors, Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace Jr. told reporters yesterday that the assumption of little change through 2006 represents "the most probable case."