Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: Un soldato normale

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/28/820
Published on Saturday, April 28, 2007 by CommonDreams.org
"Bush Has Gone AWOL"
by General William Odom
The following is a transcript of the Democratic Radio Address
delivered by Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.) on
Saturday April 28, 2007:
"Good morning, this is Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army,
retired.
"I am not now nor have I ever been a Democrat or a Republican. Thus, I
do not speak for the Democratic Party. I speak for myself, as a
non-partisan retired military officer who is a former Director of the
National Security Agency. I do so because Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of
the House of Representatives, asked me.
"In principle, I do not favor Congressional involvement in the
execution of U.S. foreign and military policy. I have seen its
perverse effects in many cases. The conflict in Iraq is different.
Over the past couple of years, the President has let it proceed on
automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating
evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued.
"Thus, he lets the United States fly further and further into trouble,
squandering its influence, money, and blood, facilitating the gains of
our enemies. The Congress is the only mechanism we have to fill this
vacuum in command judgment.
"To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems
to have gone AWOL, that is 'absent without leave.' He neither acts nor
talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat
games.
"Some in Congress on both sides of the aisle have responded with their
own tits-for-tats. These kinds of games, however, are no longer
helpful, much less amusing. They merely reflect the absence of
effective leadership in a crisis. And we are in a crisis.
"Most Americans suspect that something is fundamentally wrong with the
President's management of the conflict in Iraq. And they are right.
"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to
recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place.
The war could never have served American interests.
"But it has served Iran's interest by revenging Saddam Hussein's
invasion of Iran in the 1980s and enhancing Iran's influence within
Iraq. It has also served al Qaeda's interests, providing a much better
training ground than did Afghanistan, allowing it to build its ranks
far above the levels and competence that otherwise would have been
possible.
"We cannot 'win' a war that serves our enemies interests and not our
own. Thus continuing to pursue the illusion of victory in Iraq makes
no sense. We can now see that it never did.
"A wise commander in this situation normally revises his objectives
and changes his strategy, not just marginally, but radically. Nothing
less today will limit the death and destruction that the invasion of
Iraq has unleashed.
"No effective new strategy can be devised for the United States until
it begins withdrawing its forces from Iraq. Only that step will break
the paralysis that now confronts us. Withdrawal is the pre-condition
for winning support from countries in Europe that have stood aside and
other major powers including India, China, Japan, Russia.
"It will also shock and change attitudes in Iran, Syria, and other
countries on Iraq's borders, making them far more likely to take
seriously new U.S. approaches, not just to Iraq, but to restoring
regional stability and heading off the spreading chaos that our war
has caused.
"The bill that Congress approved this week, with bipartisan support,
setting schedules for withdrawal, provides the President an
opportunity to begin this kind of strategic shift, one that defines
regional stability as the measure of victory, not some impossible
outcome.
"I hope the President seizes this moment for a basic change in course
and signs the bill the Congress has sent him. I will respect him
greatly for such a rare act of courage, and so too, I suspect, will
most Americans.
"This is retired General Odom. Thank you for listening."
[General Odom has served as Director of the National Security Agency
and Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army's senior
intelligence officer.]

delivered by Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.)
C.D.O.
-Stefano