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Officer lambastes generals' Iraq moves

A lauded lieutenant colonel writes of a crisis of leadership.

By WASHINGTON POST
Published April 27, 2007

WASHINGTON - An active-duty Army officer is publishing a blistering attack on U.S. generals, saying they have botched the war in Iraq and misled Congress about the situation there.

"America's generals have repeated the mistakes of Vietnam in Iraq," charges Lt. Col. Paul Yingling, an Iraq veteran who is deputy commander of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment. "The intellectual and moral failures ... constitute a crisis in American generals."

Yingling's comments are striking because his unit's performance in securing the northwestern Iraqi city of Tal Afar was cited by President Bush in a March 2006 speech and provided the model for the new security plan under way in Baghdad.

He also holds a high profile for a lieutenant colonel, having attended the Army's elite School for Advanced Military Studies and written for one of the Army's top professional journals, Military Review.

The article signals the public emergence of a split inside the military between younger, mid career officers and the top brass.

Many majors and lieutenant colonels have privately expressed anger and frustration with the performance of top commanders in the war. But until now, accusations of incompetent leadership have not been made as publicly.

"For reasons that are not yet clear, America's general officer corps underestimated the strength of the enemy, overestimated the capabilities of the Iraqi government and security forces and failed to provide Congress with an accurate assessment of security conditions in Iraq," Yingling writes.

Yingling said he had made his superiors aware of the article but had not sought permission to publish it. He intends to stay in the Army, he said. In two months, he is scheduled to take command of a battalion at Fort Hood, Texas.

Yingling calls for an overhaul of the way generals are picked and more involvement by Congress. He does not criticize officers by name; instead, he refers repeatedly to "America's generals."

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The article, "General Failure," is to be published today in the Armed Forces Journal and posted at www.armedforcesjournal.com.

[Last modified April 27, 2007, 01:36:32]