I'm a bit late to the news that General William Odom, a former National Security Advisor as well as a military man, died over the weekend. Odom was one of the cohort of traditionalist conservative security policy thinkers who despised the direction in which George W. Bush has taken the country's foreign policy. That's very much to his credit. Even more to his credit is the fact that he was the kind of guy who used what credibility and influence he had to speak out against this stuff back when doing so was difficult.
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William Odom, RIP
03 Jun 2008 10:23 am
Comments (13)
I think Matt's point is that regardless of how certain you are that you're right and will eventually be borne out by history, it's hard to take a stand against the establishment and prevailing military opinion-it's certainly not helpful to your career in the short term, and given Odom's age, he must've known this stance would end his career.
If it was easier, more military guys would do it.
But did he have a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind?
it's certainly not helpful to your career in the short term, and given Odom's age, he must've known this stance would end his career.
Odom had been retired from the military for about 15 years when the Iraq invasion happened, so he didn't have that to worry about. Still, the broad point about speaking out against prevailing establishment wisdom is a valid one.
Also, MY's post is wrong about Odom being National Security Advisor, which is not a position he ever held. MY probably got that from a badly worded sentence in the WaPo obit about Odom being the military advisor to Brzezisnki when the latter was Carter's NSA.
One of the most decent people of his generation in public affairs. The kind of person you want to be when you grow up.
General Odom went on Hugh Hewitt's show and spit out the rouge and lipstick redneck baby powder whitebread chickenshit pantywaist shabbas goy neocon pearl and earrings pig motherfucker like a bad loogie.
thought that said Will Oldham, at first. I was sad.
In other words, what could be easier than taking an unpopular stand when you know you are right, and that you're opinions are sure to be borne out by history?
"Men have been found to resist the most powerful monarchs and to refuse to bow down before them, but few indeed have been found to resist the crowd, to stand up alone before misguided masses, to face their implacable frenzy without weapons and with folded arms to dare a no when a yes is demanded. Such a man was Zola!" -- Georges Clemenceau
He was the Director of the NSA under Reagan - which makes his critique of the Bush wiretapping programming all the more poignant.
Amazing what giants these principled older foreign policy conservatives seem compared to the unserious rabble who now claim the name. RIP indeed.
Bill Odom was a close friend of a close friend of mine. He was a genuinely thoughtful, independent thinker and a good man. I am sorry to hear that he has died.
I had dinner with Gen. Odom a couple of times. Once, after Margaret Thatcher gave a speech, during the Q&A, he stood up and challenged her on her opposition to German re-unification in 1989. Afterwards, she came over to our table and Thatcher and Odom went jaw to jaw on the topic for ten minutes, like a baseball manager and an umpire. Finally, he said something like, "My ancestors shot your ancestors in the Revolutionary War." The Baroness laughed, and they went off to the bar and had drinks for two hours.
William E. Odom, RIP
Soldier, Army officer, military intelligence officer, LTG, national policy adviser, scholar, strategic thinker. Of the clear Realist, Clausewitzian type . . . his brilliance will be sorely missed. Pity the land that loses its eyes.
More on William Odom
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/06/odom.html
Great story Steve Sailer . . .
Comments closed June 17, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
Even more to his credit is the fact that he was the kind of guy who used what credibility and influence he had to speak out against this stuff back when doing so was difficult.
I'm not sure if I understand this point. If I had been wise enough to know that the prospective Iraq war was going to be a disaster, and influential enough so that people would listen to me (outside of the unfortunate few that I corner in the hallway), then I think speaking out against policy would have been not only easy, but irresistable.
In other words, what could be easier than taking an unpopular stand when you know you are right, and that you're opinions are sure to be borne out by history?
Posted by Jim W | June 3, 2008 10:47 AM