R.I.P. David Hackworth

Col. David Hackworth has died at age 74 of a form of bladder cancer related to exposure to Agent Orange while in Vietnam -- one appearing with increasing frequency among Vietnam veterans.

Hackworth was a soldier's soldier, who in recent years was committed to truth -- which of course made him a pariah in Administration circles. Hackworth had been contributing articles to Newsweek for years, and he was hardly a pacifist. But even he was disgusted with what he saw coming out of the Bush Administration. He consistently sought reports from soldiers in the field as to what was actually going on there. In 2003, in this interview by Jonathan Franklin for Salon, Hackworth said:

Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld and his deputy Paul Wolfowitz made a very horrible estimate of the situation. They concluded that the war would be Slam Bam Goodbye Saddam, followed by victory parades with local Iraqi folks throwing flowers and rice and everything nice, then the troops would come home.

When I examined the task organization, my estimate was totally contrary to this asshole Rumsfeld, who went in light and on the cheap, all based upon this rosy scenario. I never thought this would be a fight without resistance. And there was another guy who thought the same way I did; his name is Saddam Hussein. He looked at the awesome array of forces being set up against him and said, "Wait a minute, no way can I prevail, I tried that in '91 and just saw in Afghanistan what happened to Taliban and Al-Qaida, I will run away for another day."

Saddam is saying, "I am going to copy Ho Chi Minh and the Taliban and go into a guerrilla configuration." It [the invasion of Baghdad] did go Slam Bam Goodbye Saddam, but we are in there so light that we don't have sufficient force to provide the stability after the fall of the regime. We can't secure the banks, the energy facilities, the vital installations, the government, the ministry, the museums or the library. The world was witness to this great anarchy, the looting and rioting that set over Baghdad. There was that wonderful quote by Rumsfeld. "Stuff happens," he said. He flipped it off.

David Hackworth was right. And he fought the good fight for "his guys" right up to the end, with this May 3 column.

I tend to be suspicious of most things military, particularly of people who find this sort of regimentation attractive as a career. But in recent years, Hackworth represented to me the good side of military discipline, one which understands that you go to war if you must....but ONLY if you must. Perhaps if the chickenshit suits in the White House and the Pentagon had been willing to listen to guys like Hackworth, and like Scott Ritter, and like Gen. John Abizaid, we wouldn't have been in this mess right now.

Thank you, Col. Hackworth. Thank you for your commitment to the truth. We'll miss you more than we even know yet.