William Arkin Pulls No Punches

William Arkin, pungently:

Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers retired this week as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and received the usual platitudes from the President and others about his leadership of the military since September 2001. He’s off to Kansas State University in his home state, according to some reports with a possible role with the school’s Institute for Military History and 20th Century Studies. I’m not sure I could say, as a watcher of Myers for five years, what unique contribution he’s made, or what philosophy he holds about military matters, or even what he has contributed. Two memories stick in my head: Myers’ vociferous defense of the Iraq war plan — he’s not known for public expressions of emotion — after others criticized the size of the U.S. ground force early in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The other memory is one of Myers standing next to or behind President Bush at various White House and Crawford events that just happened to occur during the 2004 Presidential campaign. His appearance in uniform with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Rice, and Powell suggested that he was some kind of political appointee, and that the military somehow endorsed the President is his campaigning mode. Maybe the new Chairman could be a little more mindful of the fact that he is a military advisor to the President and not a member of the administration.

Arkin certainly calls ’em like I see ’em.

In fact, this Early Warning by William M. Arkin blog that the Washington Post is running reminds me why I read newspapers.

Except. Wait. You can’t read Arkin’s blog in your newspaper. It’s only at Washingtonpost.com. (Kinda like this.) As Jay Rosen notes, Washingtonpost.com is much livelier than the online offering by the NYT. Plus the print NYT has other problems too these days.