NYT: His Army Career Behind Him, General John Batiste Is Critical of Bush: "I am outraged."

Army Career Behind Him, General Critical of Bush
By THOM SHANKER
Published: May 13, 2007


(David Scull for The New York Times)
John Batiste, a retired major general, testified on Capitol Hill in September on the Iraq war and now appears in advertisements criticizing it.

ROCHESTER, May 10 — John Batiste has traveled a long way in the last four years, from commanding the First Infantry Division in Iraq to quitting the Army after three decades in uniform and, now, from his new life overseeing a steel factory here, to openly challenging President Bush on his management of the war.

“Mr. President, you did not listen,” General Batiste says in new television advertisements being broadcast in Republican Congressional districts as part of a $500,000 campaign financed by VoteVets.org. “You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. I left the Army in protest in order to speak out. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”

Those are powerful, inflammatory words from General Batiste, a retired major general who spent 31 years in the Army, a profession sworn to unflinching loyalty to civilian control of the military. Many senior officers say privately that talk like this makes them uncomfortable; when you pin that first star on your shoulder, they say, your first name becomes “General” for the rest of your life.

But General Batiste says he has received no phone calls, letters or messages from current or former officers challenging his public stance, although he occasionally gets an anonymous e-mail message with the heading “Traitor.” Having quit the Army in anger at what he calls mismanagement of the Iraq war, he says he chose a second career far from Washington and the Pentagon so that he could speak freely on military issues.

“I am outraged, as are the majority of Americans,” General Batiste said over sandwiches in a blue-collar diner here. “I am a lifelong Republican. But it is past time for change.”...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/us/13generals.html?hp

Retired means you get the rest of your free rights as an American back.

those who refuse to say anything will have history judge them

He gave up a great deal financially and politically to be able to speak out against _Bush's treacherous war conduct. From the article:

His retirement from the Army in November 2005 meant turning his back on a third star and command of day-to-day combat missions in Iraq, the No. 2 military position in Baghdad. Having cast aside his military career, General Batiste cast his eyes away from the defense industry to join Klein Steel Service, which cuts and processes steel for commercial, civilian enterprises — and does no military work.

How refreshing, how unique! (More than a little surprised to learn we still have ANY steel industry left in this country, too. It will need all the careful leadership it can get.)

I think his character and integrity and basic "goodness" or decency show through. It surprised me he was 1st Infantry. I just don't think of infantry as, um, having a thoughtful side, shall we say?

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