CNN's Barbara Starr their Pentagon bureau chief on Chickenhawks

[Swede]

This is my paraphrasing of what she said "The feeling I get in the pentagon from the military is totally different from the civilians in charge. The military are deeply concerned about the strain on personnel. Some troops that were in the drive on Baghdad are now serving a second one year tour of duty. They are shot at daily,IED's hit convoys daily. They are also concerned with the wear on equipment. It is a harsh climate,where is the replacement going to come from. I get none of this concern from their civilian bosses."

[moggie12]

1. Good for her -- another sign of intelligent life in the media n/t

[AlinPA]

2. Her job won't last much longer if she speaks like that. "You have to

watch what you say....."

[saltpoint]

3. Can scarecly stand to listen to Wolf and the rest of --

-- that CNN crew, but Barbara Starr is good people. She seems to do her own thinking. There's some of the integrity of Helen Thomas in her.

Also have respect for Christianne Armanpour.

[MADem]

4. FINALLY!!!! Someone is SAYING it OUT LOUD

I get terribly sad when I see people denigrating the military, as though they are a bunch of bloodthirsty lockstep toadies for BushCO. These military leaders have been saying this within the infrastructure for some time, but they don't buck the chain of command PUBLICLY, because it is not part of the tradition. When they go off the reservation to this extent, and talk on deep background to the point where it is worthy of reportage, it tells you one thing--that the situation is DIRE.