Ret. Maj. General John Batiste on The Brother Wease Show

This morning, Retired Major General John Batiste appeared on the Radio Free Wease radio show. Batiste, who commanded the First Infantry Division in Iraq, walked away from the Army after 31 years in order to speak out against the Iraq War. He recently sent an editorial to the Wall Street Journal and The Washington Times, and both newspapers refused to publish the editorial, which called upon Republicans to help end the war, saying that these Republicans had forgotten the very important principles that the Republican party and Conservatism stand for. You can read the editorial here.

Today, Batiste spoke on Rochester radio. He said: (all quotes are paraphrased)

• Waging war is like a four legged stool that includes military action, diplomatic action, political solutions, and taking care of the civilians in the war zone. Right now, only one leg of the stool is in place (and that leg, the military, is the finest military in the world). Without the other three legs, we cannot win.
• Iraq is in a civil war.
• The money spent on having Haliburton build huge bases gave the impression that we were going to stay for a long time. This was an unnecessary expenditure and that money could be better spent on projects in Rochester (or in the United States).
• When the United States intervened in Bosnia under President Clinton, a lot of people didn’t agree with that, but all four legs of the stool were in place, and we did it the right way.