Army Officer Criticizes Generals on Iraq

A U.S. soldier stands by as Iraqis wait to get some fuel at a petrol station in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, April 27, 2007. The Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate adopted House-passed legislation calling for U.S. troops to begin leaving Iraq by Oct. 1. U.S. President George W. Bush pledged to veto the measure, and neither body passed the measure with enough votes to override a veto. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed) (Khalid Mohammed - AP)

During the past decade, U.S. forces have done little to prepare for the kind of brutal, adaptive insurgencies they are now fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, Yingling said.

"Given the lack of troop strength, not even the most brilliant general could have devised the ways necessary to stabilize post-Saddam Iraq," he wrote.

Yingling said he believes that no single civilian or military leader has caused what he regards as the current failure in Iraq.

Instead, he argued that Congress must reform and better monitor the system for selecting and promoting generals. The Senate confirms promotions to general officer rank and should use that power to hold officers accountable for their performance, he said.

"We still have time to select as our generals those who possess the intelligence to visualize future conflicts and the moral courage to advise civilian policy makers on the preparations needed for our security," he wrote.

Retired Col. Douglas Macgregor, a prominent writer on military affairs, endorsed many of Yingling's views, saying the Army was "grinding itself into pieces while the generals stand by watching."

"So when the post-mortem starts, it should begin with the understanding that through no fault of the soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants or captains, U.S. military performance in Iraq has not been the mythic success the generals encourage the public to believe. Politicians must overcome their fear of seeming unpatriotic," Macgregor said.

In Baghdad, U.S. spokesman Lt. Col. Christopher Garver said Yingling was expressing "his personal opinions in a professional journal" and the U.S. command was focused on "executing the mission at hand."

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Monika Mathur of AP News Research Center in New York contributed to this report.

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