April 10, 2006 by s.z.

More Manliness and Stuff

The NY Times reports that "Third Retired General Wants Rumsfeld Out."

The three-star Marine Corps general who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq expressed regret, in an essay published Sunday, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the nation to war. He also urged active-duty officers to speak out now if they had doubts about the war.

Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, who retired in late 2002, also called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and "many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach." He is the third retired senior officer in recent weeks to demand that Mr. Rumsfeld step down.

In the essay, in this week's issue of Time magazine, General Newbold wrote, "I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat — Al Qaeda."

The decision to invade Iraq, he wrote, "was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions — or bury the results."

Hey, if General Newbold is making cracks about our leaders' lack of combat experience, I want to remind him that Dick Cheney had other priorities in the '60s than military service.  So there!

And George Bush had to execute lots of life-or-death missions while serving in his Texas Air National Guard unit during the Vietnam war -- after all, those safety magazines weren't going to read themselves!  Anyway, as the President told us in 2004, "swaggering" is just what they call "walking" in Texas. 

And if you think that Rumsfeld should be fired, here's an interesting thought from an interview which Midge Decter gave to the NRO:

Lopez: What if Reagan had picked Rumsfeld instead of Bush as his vice president? Would we have had a President Rumsfeld? Does he regret he never had that job?

Decter: If Reagan had picked him, we would surely have had a President Rumsfeld — and a good thing, too, as far as I am concerned.

Just think how many countries we could have invaded under President Rumsfeld's administration! 

Anyway, while Rumsfeld may be incompetent, at least he's studly -- per K.Lo and Midge.  Midge will explain what this means to our society.

Lopez: What does it say about our culture today — and about American women (of all ages!) that Rumsfeld's become a sex symbol?

Decter: What Rumsfeld's having become an American sex symbol seems to say about American culture today is that the assault on men leveled by the women's movement, having poisoned the normally delicate relations between men and women and thereby left a generation of younger women with a load of anxiety they are only now beginning to throw off, is happily almost over.

Yes, it's time for the return of the manly men --guys who can, with a swagger and a few drinks, casually decide to invade other countries! 

Many God have pity on our souls.

And that "assault on men by mean ol' girls" theme leads us nicely to the sixth (and possibly the last) installment of Doug Giles's series "Raising boys that feminists will hate."  In this column, Doug whines some more about how man-hating "female chauvinist pigs (FCP’s)" are repressing him by failing to shave their legs. 

Here's Doug:

BTW, can some of you girls stop imitating guys? Please? Like . . . now? The other day I saw this Hispanic chick cruising on a Harley. Her gut was hanging over her way-too-low-cut jeans, she had a cigarette dangling from the corner her mouth and she was sporting more tattoos than a Maasai warrior. I had to do a double take because I thought it was my gardener with a wig and some Frederick’s inserts. Yikes!

Yes, the same Doug Giles who has written several times in this series about how Adam subduing the Garden of Eden employs a gardener to deal with his own plot.  Sounds like somebody with a poodle attitude, doesn't it?

Now, back to role models for your son. Even I have role models in case I drift to the effete dark side.

Doug might drift to the effete side?!?  Say it isn't so!  (Note: do not click on this link if you are allergic to hair mousse, pink lip balm, and carefully-styled chest hair.)

Anyway, Doug provides a list of some of his role models.  Guess which ones of the following he mentioned, and which ones I added:

1.  Larry the Cable Guy

2.  Dennis Miller

3.  Ted Nugent

4.  Ross Allen, star of "Catching Trouble (1950)"

5.  Winston Churchill

6.  Dr. Mike "Dreamy" Adams, Ph.D.

7.  God

8. Dirty Harry

9.  Hercules (as played by Steve Reeves)

10. Jesus "The Avenger" Christ

1:59:36 AM