Lt. Gen H. R. McMaster on the Future of War

[yuiyoshida]

[fountainofyouth]

1. About 7 minutes in

He starts talking about Russian attempts to collapse the postwar security order, including by use of information warfare on the U.S. and it allies.

He gets it.

[msongs]

2. if he signs on for trump he didnt get it or is now choosing to not get it anymore nt

[fountainofyouth]

3. He's active duty U.S. Army

He can't disobey the Commander in Chief if he gives a lawful order.

[meow2u3]

4. But what if the Commander in Chief gives him an unlawful order?

IIRC, he would be duty-bound to disobey it.

[fountainofyouth]

7. Yes, I believe that is correct n/t

[pfitz59]

5. Not true, officers can refuse orders....

the oath they swear is to protect and defend the Constitution, not obey orders.

[fountainofyouth]

6. That's why I specified *lawful* order n/t

[cstanleytech]

8. The other possibility is that he gets it and just wants to help prevent the country

from getting fucked over by Russia even more than it has been.

[shadowmayor]

9. None and I mean none

None of the star-level officers who served in Iraq should be allowed to fill any job in government, ever. Anybody could tell that Iraq was a disaster, beyond recovery, not to mention illegal and immoral. The only option for any real General was to say "hell no" and resign. But these asshats are careerists. The flag officers I watched while in Iraq were a bunch of yes-men, ass kissers to the core. Completely afraid and unwilling to face reality. The whole 9-11 and Iraq phony connection was swallowed by a vast majority of my Army comrades and the officers to a person, were quite uncomfortable with me when I spoke of the BS that led us into Iraq. The entire flock of these idiots should be shit-canned toot sweet!

[Victor_c3]

10. I mostly have to agree with what you said

However, I do believe that both my brigade commander and my division commander when I was deployed were good people and would stand for the right thing.

My brigade commander, when I was in Iraq, kept a wall filled with photos of civilians that were killed by his brigade. He took that very seriously. He left the army at the rank of MG. If that guy were to run for office, he'd get my vote.

My division commander contributed occasionally to votevets.org (a very progressive veterans group). Another guy I would stand behind 100% to this day.

I wasn't at al a believer of the war on Iraq, but I busted my ass to do the right thing in my seemingly insignificant position as a platoon leader. I cared deeply for the people of Iraq and I did my best to reflect that sentiment in my actions. My company commander seemed to have the same feelings as me.

I hated that war and its premise. I also did hate what we did to that country. However, I genuinely wanted things to work out for the people.

Anyways, I'm sorry for turning this into a rant. Even though I've been out of Iraq for 12 years, it continues to have a huge impact on my life. Any mention of the war gets me fired up in a hurry.

[shadowmayor]

11. OIF3 for me

Thanks Victor,

Spent 2005 in Abu Ghraib prison as a stop-loss, cross level engineer with a bunch of MP's from NY and artillery units from VA, KY, and MI. We imprisoned most of the detainees in Camp Remembrance (so we wouldn't forget 9-11), how quaint. After Bush let it slip while in Poland that the Iraq War had nothing to do with 9-11, I asked the brass if we were going to change the name of the camp. They looked at me like I had 3 purple heads.

A common refrain I heard from the command staff was - "fuck 'em, they're just Iraqis". There was no compassion for them, or for our hired help from India and the Philippines (work 'em like 3 dollar mules), and especially the lower ranking enlisted. The joke around the camps was that in OIF2, the army tortured detainees, in OIF3 the army decided to torture their own soldiers.

Not one GD general was fired for incompetence or for slaughtering civilians in Iraq. The surge was a phony BS story, and there wasn't any al qaeda in Iraq until we arrived. ISIS is just al qaeda 3.0 on steroids and meth, and we helped create them.

I'm glad that you were fortunate enough to server with honorable leaders. In my experience, it was all too rare an occurance.