(originally published on Jan. 27, 2010)
Looking back, this strikes me as a particularly sad example of how “Duty, Honor, Country” once taught at West Point has been eclipsed by “Salute Smartly, Go Along, Get Along.” In late 2009, U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, U.S. ambassador in Kabul (a retired Lt. Gen. and one of the brighter of the West Point-trained caste) blew his chance to help bring to an end the carnage in Afghanistan.
Likely as not, it was simply beyond his ken that he would be answering a higher duty-honor-country call by doing the honorable thing and NOT GOING ALONG sheepishly with what he knew to be a fool’s-errand – the time-limited “surge” of 30,000 troops into Afghanistan. Eikenberry apparently lacked the courage to risk forfeiting his place in the Officers’ Club and the Establishment. And so, he did not speak up publicly, as he watched Generals Petraeus and McChrystal and “windsock Bobby Gates” maneuver President Obama into what boiled down to a decision to sacrifice our troops on the altar of political expediency. There is enough shame – more than enough – to go around.
Writing from Kabul in November 2000, Eikenberry kept warning, “We have time; we must take the time.” He appealed to the White House to appoint “a panel of civilian and military experts to examine the Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy and the full range of options” … to “widen the scope of our analysis.” (I suppose that, as he realized he was not getting through to the President, he may even have leaked the two well-reasoned cables that found their way into the New York Times.)
The list of issues he suggested such a “panel” would examine reads like what the intelligence community calls the “terms of reference” for a National Intelligence Estimate. (I contributed to many NIEs and chaired a few myself. Good things can happen as a result of tell-it-like-it-is analysis. The Nov. 2007 NIE on Iran’s nuclear capability and plans played a huge role in preventing Bush from launching a strike on Iran).
So, just two years later, without an NIE, Obama’s White House deferred to Petraeus/McChrystal/Gates, who knew only too well how an honest NIE can derail plans for more war. With the received wisdom that accompanies those rows of medals and ribbons, who would need an NIE? The generals and Gates knew that an honest NIE, in the mold of the one on Iran, would put the intelligence community on the side of reason (Eikenberry’s), and they would have none of it. Their artfulness with leaks to the media regarding the “necessity” of a surge successfully mousetrapped Obama. And, like Br’er Rabbit, Eikenberry didn’t say nothing.
Eikenberry’s appeal for more serious analysis and his well-reasoned criticism of the logic of the surge had ended up in the circular file. At that point, he should have resigned on principle and made his views known publicly, rather than actively promote the misbegotten strategy Obama chose. Instead, Eikenberry took the cowardly way out; he saluted sharply, reversed himself, and spoke publicly in favor a surge he knew was noxious nonsense and would leave lots of troops and other people dead – and for what? Look at Afghanistan now.
Was it too much to ask a retired Lt. General to put real duty, honor, country first and SPEAK OUT – and try to prevent further death and destruction from yet another feckless escalation? Instead, Eikenberry took active part in a fraudulent sales-job with Congress and U.S. allies, with thousands more casualties and destruction the result.
The story is so common now – and so corrupt. Eikenberry placed priority on staying in good odor with the West Point alumni/fraternity and the Establishment. I wonder how he regards his behavior in retrospect, as Afghanistan disintegrates after four more years of unnecessary carnage – and apparently, one more to go.
Contrast that with Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden, who never went near West Point but had duty, honor country circumcised on their hearts. They knew instinctively they could NOT sell their souls – and sell out their comrades and the rest of us – for personal advancement and comfort.
As recent disclosures make clear, far too many of the high brass abuse their power in unconscionable ways, with impunity. Sadly, there seem to be at least as many general officers ready to abuse their own consciences, as well, for the basest of reasons. Whatever happened to “Duty, Honor, Country?”
Comment re Eikenberry from Gareth Porter, Feb. 9, 2014
Eikenberry should have resigned in protest when his warning within the administration was not heeded. And since it was leaked, it would have made even more sense for him to do so. His dissenting view that the war was not going to go well was unambiguous, and he owed it to the country to sacrifice his position in the establishment to go public and warn against it.
As one of those who had information about what was going to happen in Afghanistan, he was one of those to whom Dan Ellsberg has been pleading for many years to blow the whistle regarding policies known to be clearly wrong and against the national interest. It is a said commentary on the nature of the national security elite that he failed to do so.