Former Delta Force Soldier Calls Iraq War "Utter Debacle"

By: zola
Published On: 10/20/2006 2:56:05 PM

I don't know if the following article has been posted before, since it was published around March, but I think it's of considerable interest that a former Delta Force operator called Eric Haney (author of the memoir "Inside Delta Force") has come out and lambasted the Bush admin's Iraq adventure in the strongest terms.
Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.) Today, he's doing nothing nearly as dangerous: He serves as an executive producer and technical adviser for "The Unit," CBS' new hit drama based on his book, developed by playwright David Mamet. Even up against "American Idol," "The Unit" shows muscle, drawing 18 million viewers in its first two airings.

Since he has devoted his life to protecting his country in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots, you might assume Haney is sympathetic to the Bush administration's current plight in Iraq (the laudatory cover blurb on his book comes from none other than Fox's News' Bill O'Reilly). But he's also someone with close ties to the Pentagon, so he's privy to information denied the rest of us.

We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."

Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?

A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.

We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.

Q: What is the cost to our country?

A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on.

Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.

The harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more than 2,000 American kids that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed +¦ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public's attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.

Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney ...

A: (Interrupting) That's Cheney's pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up. You don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It's worse than small-minded, and look what it does.

I've argued this on Bill O'Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He's an employee of yours. It's worse than ridiculous. It's criminal; it's utterly criminal. This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I'm saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don't do it. It's an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what's legal and what we believed in. Now we're going to throw it away.

Q: As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did some of the most hair-raising things to protect your country, and to see your country behave this way, that must be ...

A: It's pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they're starting to see what's happening and the lies that have been told. We're seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.

Comments



Very powerful (Todd Smyth - 10/21/2006 7:04:32 PM)
Here is a photo if you want to add to the top of your post.



I must admit that the Unit (Catzmaw - 10/21/2006 7:13:26 PM)
is one of my guilty little pleasures.  I thought it was going to be a mindless Walker, Texas Ranger type thing full of manly soldiers administering severe butt-kickings to bad guys and having a happy resolution in the end.  Instead, the show actually poses a lot of nuanced and difficult situations in which the characters have to make judgments, sometimes resulting in the deaths of innocents, or must do a  wrong thing in order to achieve the greater good.  They do what they have to do, but not without consequence.  They and their families suffer.  They are portrayed as struggling to achieve their missions while retaining their sense of honor and obligation to each other, their families, and their country. Their families are often clueless about the harrowing situations and devastating losses they experience and you get a sense of isolation on both sides.

The Bush Administration has the Walker, TR outlook.  Everything can be resolved by taking names, kicking ass, and blowing stuff up.  At the end of the day the insurgents all die or go to Gitmo or become so disheartened because we're such badasses they just give up.  Their clueless kid followers see how wrong the bad guys are and all decide to lay down their arms, take up karate, and become card-carrying registered voters.  The Bushies can think this way because so few of them have ever been in the military and have no respect for those who have.  I'm sure that Mr. Haney will be labeled a "cut and run" type by people like Cheney.

This was a great post and should give even the most gung ho conservative some food for thought.



Revenge seems sweet (Teddy - 10/21/2006 11:02:57 PM)
to the immature and that is one big element in the desire for and use of torture. I hear from some macho-saturated types that anything goes because the bad guys did bad things to us, killed their buddies, and so on. The revenge element is definitely persuasive for these types, and they all just love Cheney who knows how to kick butt. Sick, sick.


Swift-Boating (zola - 10/22/2006 3:34:56 AM)
Believe it or not, Haney was the subject of a swift-boat type attack after issuing the above criticism of the Iraq war (an article which has since vanished from public scrutiny actually tried to paint Haney as a liar who wasn't even in Delta, lied about his own rank, made up parts os his memoir, faked his own service record, etc) which demonstrates how difficult it is for anyone, even a former triggerpuller in the Army's most elite counterterrorist unit, to offer any ctritique of Bush's war policies without getting smeared.