PRESS RELEASE
Revolt of the Generals Resurges:
Bush Does Not Listen to Commanders on the Ground
May 8, 2007 (EIRNS)—Recently retired Army Major Generals John Batiste and Paul Eaton, former commanders on the ground in Iraq, will escalate their attacks on President Bush's Iraq policy with eight press conferences given on May 9-10, in districts where moderate Republicans up for election in 2008 have refused to break with Bush. Their message is that Bush does not listen to his commanders on the ground in Iraq.
Major Gens. Batiste and Eaton will also tape $500,000 worth of ads to be run in the districts of Republican Sens. Susan Collins (Me.), John Sununu (N.H.), John Warner (Va.), and Norman Coleman (Minn.), all of whom have failed to vote to end the Iraq War, despite their criticisms of it. Also targetted by the ads are Republican Congressmen Mary Bono (Cal.); Phil English (Pa.), Randy Kuhl (N.Y), Jim Walsh (N.Y.), Jo Ann Emerson (Mo.), Tim Johnson (Ill.), Mike Rogers (Ala.), Fred Upton (Mich.), and Mike Castle (Del.). Gen. Wesley Clark will tape a third ad.
Batiste was involved from 2001 in planning the Iraq war. Gen. Shinseki chose Batiste to command the lst Infantry Division in Iraq, which he commanded in Iraq from December 2003 through 2005. In April 2006, Batiste told AP, "We went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we took down the regime." He told the Oregonian at the same time, "I think the current administration repeatedly ignored sound military advice and counsel with respect to the war plans."
Major General Paul Eaton organized the current Iraqi army forces when the Iraq Army no longer existed, in June 2003, until approximately June 2004. On March 10, 2007, Gen. Eaton, then retired, told HBO's Bill Maher show, "We are in the midst of recovering right now from a constitutional crisis where you had the executive trump the other branches of government." Eaton lamented, "So many service members believe that conservatives are good for the military. That is rarely the case. And we have got to get a message through to every soldier, every family member, every friend of a soldier, that the Bush administration and its allies in Congress have absolutely been the worst thing that's happened to the United States Army and the United States Marine Corps."
