Listen to the Generals

[Disclaimer: This post was first published on Coleen Rowley's campaign weblog.]

Listen to generals . . . who are in Iraq. - John Kline on Almanac, October 20, 2006

To the extent that John Kline has a solution to the disaster of Iraq --- and it's not at all clear that he does --- he emphasizes the need to listen to experienced military leaders who have been there.

Leaders like Maj. Gen. John Batiste and Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton:

Two retired senior Army generals, who served in Iraq and previously voted Republican, are now openly endorsing a Democratic takeover of Congress. The generals, and an active-duty senior military official, told Salon in separate interviews that they believe a Democratic victory will help reverse course from what they consider to be a disastrous Bush administration policy in Iraq.

There's more:

Eaton, who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004, agrees that Democratic control of Congress could be the best way to wrest control from the Bush administration and steer the United States away from a gravely flawed strategy in Iraq. "The way out that I see is to hand the House and the Senate to the Democrats and get this thing turned around," Eaton explained, adding that such sentiment is growing among retired and active-duty military leaders. "Most of us see two more years of the same if the Republicans stay in power," he said.

Most of us see two more years of the same if Republicans like John Kline stay in power, too, especially since Kline supports an open-ended committment to the U.S. occupation of Iraq, and has even voted to allow the construction of permanent U.S. military bases there (and was in the minority, even among Republicans).