More General “Terra! Terra! Terra!” New Years’ Nonsense

(By the way, there’s a reason why I’m not a medical professional – my self-diagnosis of a wrist sprain turned out to be incorrect. In truth, I have a broken arm…peachy. For this reason, posting will be highly problematic for a little while.)

As noted here, we learned the following from retired General Thomas McInerney recently (in the matter of the would-be “pants bomber” on Flight 253)…

McInerney: Because I believe that in the next 90 to 120 days, there is danger, a very high probability that a U.S. airliner will come down because of one of these bombers. And so, we've got to go to more than just the normal process that they're talking about now, we have got to go to very, very strict screening, and we have to use profiling. And I mean be very serious and harsh about the profiling. If you are an 18 to 28-year-old Muslim man, then you should be strip searched. And if we don’t do that, there’s a very high probability we’re going to lose an airliner.

Yeah, you know what, Former General Tom? I think we should do more to help al Qaeda in its recruiting efforts, instead of, you know, waging the legitimate war on terror (as opposed to the phony one in Iraq when we blew that country to bits) with common sense and adherence to the rule of law, and by doing so, showing up al Qaeda for the murdering cowards that they truly are.

And I just wanted to remind everyone that, if McInerney sounds familiar, it’s probably because he was one of the generals noted in this Pulitzer Prize-winning story by David Barstow of the New York Times about the military analysts who pontificate on TV about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan under the guise of objectivity, when in fact they run businesses that depend on access to the very Pentagon officials they are tasked to critique (time for yet another blogger ethics panel, it would seem).

As Barstow reported…

Though many analysts are paid network consultants, making $500 to $1,000 per appearance, in Pentagon meetings they sometimes spoke as if they were operating behind enemy lines, interviews and transcripts show. Some offered the Pentagon tips on how to outmaneuver the networks, or as one analyst put it to Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the defense secretary, “the Chris Matthewses and the Wolf Blitzers of the world.” Some warned of planned stories or sent the Pentagon copies of their correspondence with network news executives. Many — although certainly not all — faithfully echoed talking points intended to counter critics.

“Good work,” Thomas G. McInerney, a retired Air Force general, consultant and Fox News analyst, wrote to the Pentagon after receiving fresh talking points in late 2006. “We will use it.”

…

The group (of analysts) was heavily represented by men involved in the business of helping companies win military contracts. Several held senior positions with contractors that gave them direct responsibility for winning new Pentagon business. James Marks, a retired Army general and analyst for CNN from 2004 to 2007, pursued military and intelligence contracts as a senior executive with McNeil Technologies. Still others held board positions with military firms that gave them responsibility for government business. General McInerney, the Fox analyst, for example, sits on the boards of several military contractors, including Nortel Government Solutions, a supplier of communication networks.

And as noted in this prior post, Gen. Marks’ case was particularly egregious since he had been tasked to find the WMD in Iraq prior to the invasion, eventually discovering that they didn’t exist, but he kept hyping the war anyway.

Back to McInerney...

The full dimensions of this mutual embrace were perhaps never clearer than in April 2006, after several of Mr. Rumsfeld’s former generals — none of them network military analysts — went public with devastating critiques of his wartime performance. Some called for his resignation.

On Friday, April 14, with what came to be called the “Generals’ Revolt” dominating headlines, Mr. Rumsfeld instructed aides to summon military analysts to a meeting with him early the next week, records show. When an aide urged a short delay to “give our big guys on the West Coast a little more time to buy a ticket and get here,” Mr. Rumsfeld’s office insisted that “the boss” wanted the meeting fast “for impact on the current story.”

That same day, Pentagon officials helped two Fox analysts, General McInerney and General Vallely, write an opinion article for The Wall Street Journal defending Mr. Rumsfeld.

And by the way, as noted here, McInerney accused liberals and Democrats in general of “aid(ing) and comforting the enemy.”

Well, at this point, I usually respond with some kind of a dig or smartass remark, but instead, I’ll merely give my fingers a rest and embed this appropriate video instead (and yes, that is Richard Branson).



Update 1/5/10: I forgot about this choice item concerning McInerney.