We been doing serious diplomacy for decades and all we got in return was 9/11/2001. Come to think of it, while we've been doing serious diplomacy people living in countries like Sudan were and still are being exterminated by militant Islamists; people living in countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Lebanon, Egypt, Afghanistan etc etc were being terrorized into submission.

Diplomacy won't work with an enemy who believes war is caused by those who do not submit.

I suppose the fact that Saddam violated 17 United Nations resolutions over a period of ten years is not considered 'escalation' in anti-war Winter Soldiers aka VoteVets world.

That said, soldiers or commanders who believe in following John Kerry's approach to gaining power are making fools of themselves.

War is the result of failed diplomacy.
The time for talk ended on September 12, 2001.

Paul Eaton has the distinction of having missed participation in every act of combat engaged by American troops during his career. His list of medals includes none for combat, including a CIB. He is a French professor that made it to major general, and that's all.

Apparently, his first 15 minutes of fame were not enough.

The best thing for these retired generals is to take the advise of The General McArthur and simply "fade away".

Demoncrat. Thats it in a nutshell. Has an ax to grind and wants to hurt Bush. He just needs to get in line with all the other nimby Bush Bashers.

I don't care what he has to say.

The old Demoncrat play book rears its ugly head... say one thing and then say the opposite. Whatever Bush wants, you say the opposite. The MSM has short term memory loss and will never call you on it so you can get away with it as long as it hurts bush & co.

Seems to me that he had no Integrity in the uniform and even less out of uniform.

If he had a problem with the war was being fought while in uniform, he should have had the integrity to stand up and point this out.
But now he is just a down-right liar!

I wish these arm-chair generals would do just that. Sit on the damn arm-chair and shut their mouths or just scream at their own TV b/c I really don't care what most of them have to say.

P.S Someone should really ask Mr. McCaffrey about his tenure as the 24ID Commander during DESERT STORM. It certainly seems that some of his command decisions during were suspect, if not illegal.

The link for Gen. Paul Eaton's 2006 statement is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/25/AR2006092501114.html at the Washington Post.

Seems to me someone in authority ought to be calling them on this.

Actually, it seems to me that the good General is being remarkably consistent.

"Last year, pre-surge (pre-US elections) retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton appears before congress, excoriates the Bush administration".

This year, Gen. Eaton excoriates President Bush for a different reason.

So he's consistently excoriating the President, even when that requires him to contradict his previous positions.

At least we know what his priorities are.

respectfully,
Daniel in Brookline

All those Soros dollars, and yet a basic BASIC due diligence mistake like this?