Overdrawn

Barry McCaffrey built up quite the line of credit with me based on his setting the land-speed record in the Middle East as commander of the 24th Infantry Division (and attached armored cavalry regiment that he used like a subordinate brigade under the division flag) in 1991. He drove into southern Iraq and--after the cease fire--completed the destruction of a Republican Guard division in his sector. This was good work.

But his early panic as a television commentator at the first delay during the drive on Baghdad in March 2003 made me wonder about him. So too have more recent remarks (like here and here).

But his 1991 work led me to excuse him. I wonder about him not simply for disagreeing with me, I hasten to add. I had disagreements, but surely we wanted the same thing--victory. But just being wrong on things that he should know makes me doubt that assumption.

With these remarks, McCaffrey has officially exhausted my respect for him. I will always thank him for his work as a division commander in 1991 and his military service in general. But it no longer carries over into his current role as commentator. I don't know what he believes in, but given his blatant inaccuracies over the war, I find it hard to accept that he believes we should win the war we are in.

I'm sure he doesn't care. But I do. So his account his closed.