December 17, 2004

[1941 - Admiral Chester W. Nimitz named Commander in Chief,
US Pacific Fleet to relieve Admiral Husband Kimmel]

Heroes All

In William's old outfit it only took ten days to figure out that the guy who permitted December 7, 1941, to live in infamy needed to be canned and replaced by a competent officer. Nowadays we reward the failed leader who permitted September 11, 2001, to live in infamy by giving him an additional four years in office so that he can award medals to three of his cronies. A few days ago, President Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom (the highest civilian honor this nation can bestow) to three individuals. Thus in one ceremony he made heroes of the former intelligence chief who provided him with flawed information about WMD that led to the disastrous war in Iraq, the former general who was rolled by the pentagon into accepting an inadequate force to secure that country after it was captured, and the ambassador who bungled the occupation and allowed it to degenerate into chaos and insurgency. Why not a fourth medal for the general in charge of the Abu Ghraib prison when the Iraqi prisoners were tortured there?

We already understood that no good deed must go unpunished.
Now we also know that no colossal failure must go unrewarded.

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