Most recently according to Michael Beebe of the Buffalo News, Batiste visited the First Brigade Combat Team of his old First Infantry Division now based at Fort Hood, Texas. The seasoned veterans he would expect to see, he said, were either already in Iraq or had left the service.
“We have soldiers pulled together as a pickup team,” he said, soldiers who were thrown together 90 days before deployment, instead of cohesive units that had trained for months together.”
“Folks are going over for their third or fourth deployment,” he said. “Their spirit is broken.”
The troops were green, he said, and the Army fort itself was suffering from neglect.
“The infrastructure of the post is falling apart. The training apparatus of the post is falling apart,” he said.
Well, sir. Thanks for your eternal fatalism. I am sure the men who are marching off to serve their nation in harmÂ’s way appreciate this ringing endorsement of their battle readiness. Yet, this is nothing new to my old commander. At a time when we desperately need leadership, Batiste is hell bent on deconstructing the mistakes of 2003 and 2004. He offers only negative rhetoric, while American warriors continue to risk their lives killing terrorists and bleeding real blood in equally real time.
The political correct disclaimer remains: his service in Iraq and to our nation are admirable. That does not however, give one a free pass to reckless and soulless expression of the ever out of touch far political left. I mean what is to be gained by BatisteÂ’s mission statement? How many press conferences can we Google to find archived transcripts of John Batiste and Donald Rumsfeld standing side by side discussing how everything was magnificent in Iraq? What world exists that we are to believe a war plan he helped formulate is now fatally flawed only after he leaves command?This is the pedigree of field grade officers at a time of war? Imagine a disgruntled George Patton, retired and touring the Atlantic seaboard in 1944 complaining about the misadventure of the recent Operation Market Garden and the 17,827 causalities suffered from mismanagement and failed planning.
It was John Batiste that quoted Teddy Roosevelt to my friends, my peers and subordinates to “strike while the rattlesnake was coiled” before they rolled out and lost their lives battling Al Qaeda trained and supplied terrorists in Iraq. He told us then, that we were involved in a “noble defense” of our nation and our homeland. If there is to be hurt feelings or confusion over what was said back then it should not come from John Batiste.
As a combat leader of any rank or duty description, you are at times put into situations where you disagree with orders. Sometimes it is menial and regrettably sometimes it is mission oriented. Each and every soldier must decide what is more important: the mission or themselves. If you want an easier job enroll at Devry, I hear they are serious about success. We are professional soldiers and Marines fighting during the most difficult time in our nationÂ’s history.
The tragic irony is that the motto in our old Big Red One was simple and profound: “No Mission Too Difficult, No Sacrifice Too Great… Duty First.” We lived and literally died by that motto. The least John Batiste could do was pretend to live by it in public.
Leaders after all, never complain down, always up. Yet today, a retired two star General sits and picks apart young officers and cherry NCOs as having a “broken spirit.” Men who all volunteered to defend liberty after this war took its unpopular turn in public opinion and still stand ready to take the fight to those who want us to convert and comply with a hostile agenda and faith.
Steel managing Batiste, eager to see Al Qaeda in Iraq for at least ten more years.
Privilege and honor are the only words to describe serving under General Batiste in combat. Disgust and outrage are not strong enough to describe what Mr. Batiste has become.