Odierno: “frustrating” to watch ISIS in Iraq
The Army Chief of Staff, General Ray Odierno, did a final interview with Fox News as he heads out the door into retirement. During that interview, he candidly told Jennifer Griffin that he is frustrated that conditions in Iraq are what they’ve become and that it was completely preventable;
“It’s frustrating to watch it,” Odierno said. “I go back to the work we did in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010 and we got it to a place that was really good. Violence was low, the economy was growing, politics looked like it was heading in the right direction.”
Odierno said the fall of large parts of Iraq was not inevitable, reiterating concerns about the pace of the U.S. troop withdrawal there.
“If we had stayed a little more engaged, I think maybe it might have been prevented,” he said. “I’ve always believed the United States played the role of honest broker between all the groups and when we pulled ourselves out, we lost that role.”
I applaud the General for speaking up now, but he does a great disservice to troops currently engaged in combat operations in Iraq by waiting six years to bring up his concerns. He continues that he had no access to policymakers in the White House, but that he relayed his concerns to the secretary of defense. Yeah, well, we’re talking about him communicating through Robert Gates and Leon Panetta who also waited to criticize the Obama Administration on their handling of the Iraq situation until after they retired. To me, that’s just cowardly. They should have all publicly and vociferously resigned to expose the failures of the policy makers before their policies led us to this point.
But, then Odierno sent his sergeant major to Afghanistan to lecture the troops that they were causing the “green-on-blue” attacks by their allies because they didn’t respect the culture of Islam. He also presided over the policy that left our troops defenseless while their supposed allies shot them up in those attacks. I understand that his job was to salute and execute, but you know, there comes a point when you have to realize that the orders you’re being given disregard the advice you’re giving and it’s time to go.
I noticed that Odierno doesn’t mention the massive cuts that are being made to compensation and manpower by this administration, so while he seems to be acting brave in his criticism, he still sticks up for the policies that are destroying the Army.
Category: Big Army
So, in other words, Odierno is frustrated that things might have gone better if he’d actually done his job? Because I thought the whole point of his position was that it’s NOT supposed to be held by a yes-man.
“It’s frustrating to watch it,” Odierno said. Yeah, he was just a bystander, an onlooker. I guess you could say he was just like you and me in that regard, except that he was Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Thanks for your candor, Uncle Fester. I look forward to your book, “I came. I saw. I did nothing.”
Hey! He was just following orders doncha know!
He advised the boss, but at the end of the day, it’s the boss’s decision! What can he do in a case like that?
/sarc off
Well, I guess he can ruminate about that while he’s sitting around collecting the big bucks from his cushy post career job.
Odierno = Oh Dear Noooooo. . . .
That’s what happens when ya let a (big army) leg in that position. Bring back Gen. Shoomaker.
CSA Harold K. Johnson seriously contemplated submitting his resignation in protest to LBJ/MacNamara policies over Vietnam war. Well not really…the combat decorated general came to his senses. Admitted his regret not going through with it shortly before his death in early 80s.
The incoming CSA Mark Milley will carry on the tradition of his predecessors….the song remains the same.
Isn’t it just soooooo special that he was frustrated. So were most of us out here in the real world.
The difference, General, is that YOU could have done something about it while the rest of us could only hang on and try to survive your (and many others) mishandling the situation. Weren’t getting specific guidance from above? Great – that left you to do the right thing, the honorable thing, just because it was the best thing to do.
Oh, so NOW General O’doo-doo says something without fear of [wannabe] Emperor B. Hussein 0bama throwing him out and damaging his chances for a cushy post-retirement job either with a Defense Contractor or in the lobbying business.
Don’t worry, General, that comfortable check you get every month will ease your frustrations.
Oh. You’re welcome.
In 2009 some of us made a staff visit to one of our subordinates at Liberty and we got to tour the Al Faw palace. Odierno was there in the lobby and came over and posed for a picture with us. Which I thought was extremely cool. So, I do believe that he regrets what happened in Iraq given the time and effort he put into the war there.
I was in Kuwait in 2011 during the drawdown and I know that the decision as to whether or not to leave some force in Iraq was up in the air for a while. What role Odierno played in all that has yet to be revealed. I am looking forward to his memoirs or a biography which answers those questions.
Essentially none would be my guess.
First: he was the guy who implemented a major Bush Administration success: the “surge” (he was MFC-I Commander, so he executed the day-to-day mission), then continued the momentum until the US withdrawal in 2010 was well underway. He thus represented a major Bush Administration success story. That alone would have made him “persona non grata” with the current Administration.
Second: from Oct 2010 to Aug 2011, GEN Odierno was Commander, Joint Forces Command. That probably kept him a bit busy, particularly as he was specifically given the task of closing down that HQ from the SECDEF.
However, I will also say this: by mid-September 2011, GEN Odierno had the requisite 3 years TIG to retire with all 4 stars. I do wonder why he never said “f-this – I’m outta here” if he had major reservations.
I suspect – much like GEN Johnson during Vietam – he felt his successor would do even worse and that he could do more good mitigating the damage from the inside vice leaving in protest. But in both cases, I’m not sure that was an accurate assessment.
I was a Plans and Ops guy in MNSTC (CPATT) in the spring of 2009. The Obama team had a bunch of totally clueless ideas about Iraq and when they got pushback from the military, essentially quit trying to forge a SOFA. Just up and dropped the ball. I know when Odierno specifically mentioned Iran was supplying weapons (specifically EFPs) he was shut down PDQ. So yeah, limited F2F with the Whitehouse isn’t surprising. Dan Bolger in his book “Why we Lost”, mentions a lack of interest or outright indifference to what was going on overseas several times with different Commanders. Excellent read, BTW.
Sorry but I can’t applaud Odierno for anything. No access to the White House? That in itself is an out and out cover his worthless ass LIE! Yea, “green-on-blue” attacks were all our fault. Nothing whatsoever to do with the murderous Muslim fanatics whom Odierno said we didn’t respect. He’s as ass kissing, two hole licking Obama lackey. Yea and he’s looking forward to a great pension and “pump ’em up”, speaking engagements in the corporate sector for 5 to 10 grand a pop. Fuck him, up, down and sideways. Thanks for nothing General. How does the blood of American troops feel on your hands because of you self serving silence? Remember, that shit won’t wash off…EVER!
Bravo. He needs to STFU. Ray is complicit of deaths to our troops because of political correctness. He got his so screw the little guy.
No, I believe he didn’t have access to the White House. Most of the other critiques of him are valid, but the admin has the history of not talking to anyone, especially in the five sidded squirrel cage.
Wasn’t it just in the last couple weeks O dropped by the Pentagon to work on military strategy? Because that’s the way to run a war, annual photo op meetings.
Okay, he’s leaving. Fine. I’m sure he’ll write his memoirs and do the lecture circuit. But as long as the policy is ‘do thing, see nothing, say nothing’, nothing will change.
It’s not worth it to worry about whose in charge of things now. Best general ever couldn’t actually lead anything with the current admin. Might as well wait to put better leaders in when they won’t get canned on day one.
True spoken.
Here is a perfect and timely example of the problem with Odie and all of those like him. In an exclusive interview with Fox, during which he “clarified” his reluctance, if not opposition, to arming our people, he explained:
“When it comes to recruiting stations, we are looking at it now — what are we doing now to best protect them,” Odierno said in a sit-down interview as he prepared to leave the Army after 39 years of service. “We will look at every avenue — arming them, there is some authority issues with that so we have to look all the way through that.”
You see, until this became a hot-button issue, it was not on his radar. Despite all of the alerts issued for stateside troops and their loved ones, it didn’t just take one more shooting by a terrorist bastard to get his attention, it took that and the grassroots demand for positive action (not to mention some congressional grumblings) for him to open his eyes and look.
Was he also frustrated with this? I tell, I don’t give a shit how nice this guy. He wasn’t being paid to be a nice guy. He was being paid to lead. Now he’ll be well paid to be retired. Here, General, let me get the door for you.
IMHO he’s been a pretty big disappointment.
His unit’s heavy handed actions did much to accelerate the insurgency in the first place back in 2003/2004.
We don’t pay GOs to just f%^& things up and later fix them, we pay them not to $%^& it up at all.
Fucking leg tanker. But I’m being redundant.
too bad he could bang those new found balls together when it mattered and would’ve made a difference.
What does it take for the Government to wake up and say, “Hey why does all this shit keep happening?” Animals will attack another animal they see as weak, as something that they have a good chance of winning against. Maybe if we let the fucking Military walk around post and recuriting stations and other places were they work with loafed weapons we wouldn’t be seen as easy targets? Because it is the fucking Military and we do learn how to use these weapons. But no, let’s hire civilian contracters to check ID’S at bases and let’s not mount weapons on our vehicles when we go places to do training or have loaded weapons on us because of the image it potrays. I bet you in other countries if you so much as cut off a military vehicle while it was driving down the road you would get a couple warning shots your way. We even let ISIS pull all their bullshit without doing a whole lot. So we keep showing the rest of the world (especially our enemies) that we are a bunch of soft pussys then that is going to be the way that they will treat us, and the attacks will only get worse. I fucking hate politics so much, but the politicians need to wake the fuck up and look at the problems they are only making worse with their bullshit views on guns and their spineless additives towards the enemies of this country. The fucking superpower that doesn’t let it’s military use its power. Fucking ridiculous.
*loaded the one time autocorrect doesn’t work but it loves to change the words I meant to say to other words
And I know I am talking to myself here but it is a fucking embarrassment to this country in my eyes that when our enemies think to themselves “what would be the easiest place to attack in America” that military installations are probably one of the first thoughts that come to their minds
Hope you did not pay much for that autocorrect. Thanks to it, your post pretty much left me confused and dazed. No offense my friend, but please don’t go and ruin it by telling me you voted for Oshitt.
I don’t vote as a show of my hate for politics and I honestly think that who will be in charge is a matter of money and a type of good old boy system that us who didn’t go to Yale or brown or Harvard will never know, I’d that makes sense