Tin-Foil Hat Time: By my count, at least five senior generals

[coalition_unwilling]

and admirals have been demoted, fired or forced to step down just in the past month:

Admiral Charles Gaouette - http://www.predatormastersforums.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2328294
General Carter Ham - http://www.westernjournalism.com/general-in-benghazi-scandal-suddenly-retires/
General William Ward - http://thegrio.com/2012/11/13/general-william-kid-ward-demoted-for-lavish-travel-spending/
General John Allen - http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-john-allen-petraeus-jill-kelley-20121113,0,5237129.story
General David Petraeus (Retired from U.S. Army and currently was serving as CIA Director)

This is truly some scary shit. I'm wondering if we dodged the bullet of a military coup d'etat and, if true, whom we should be thanking (besides President Obama).

[Whovian]

1. I'll throw some tin foil on for this. Want to see how it all plays out. nt

[HooptieWagon]

2. I see zero evidence of a coup...

Just a bunch of military brass who thought they were too big to fail.

[coalition_unwilling]

3. Admittedly, I have zero evidence and, if I had any, I would

probably not be posting on DU.

Just a weird coincidence of timing, I suppose.

[w8liftinglady]

5. weird that Israel reported this,too

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/161626

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

16. The article is quoting Gordon Duff, a UFO conspiracy theorist

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/20/ufo-disclosure-gordon-duff-on-coast-to-coast-with-george-noory/

Maybe there are other sources of evidence, but this guy may or may not be a credible source. This whole Petraeus affair is pretty weird already.

[SidDithers]

35. Gordon Duff is an anti-Semitic holocaust-denier...

Anyone using anything by Duff might want to check for a different source.

Sid

[leftyohiolib]

8. " I have zero evidence" the herman cane qualifier

[coalition_unwilling]

11. LOL- You got me! :) - n/t

[Horse with no Name]

4. I honestly don't know how this plays out and I don't want to disparage

good men's names...

However...there was a command change at MacDill AFB in June and the former base commander was sent to be the Deputy Commanding General for the Special Operations Joint Task Force-Afghanistan, NATO Special Operations Component Command- Afghanistan, Kabul, Afghanistan.

Isn't that with Petraeus?

[railsback]

6. Patraeus isn't getting any credit where credit is due

His infidelity was discovered a while back. He knew it. Other people knew it. Him submitting his resignation before the election would have set the Right off. Gawd, could you imagine the mayhem that would have been unleashed: Obama hates the military, Obama fires war hero, and on and on and on.

Patraeus did us all a favor by not making it a political land mine.

[Posteritatis]

7. I'm seeing housecleaning more than a coup

The military's doing pretty well with things as they are; there's no incentive to seize power considering the scope of the mess that would create.

I can totally see this as a post-election cleanup though, especially if a lot of this stuff was known beforehand. The timing's a bit cynical, but if I were the president's campaign advisory droneunit I would suggest stuff like this happen after election day rather than before.

[Cleita]

9. Me too. Also, it seems those getting the door are holdover

neo-cons from the Bush administration. They probably should have been cleared out years ago.

[AntiFascist]

36. Agreed! n/t

[Zen Democrat]

10. What I find interesting is that the investigation began in June.

And the media is telling us the Dave and Paula affair ended 4 months ago -- which is July. So they were still getting it on when they were slapped by this. It's not as if the affair ended because either of them had any morals or ethics -- they were CAUGHT!

[voteearlyvoteoften]

12. My tin foul theory

Double agents?
The old school way to get men in power to give up secrets or compromise their integrity, eading to blackmail.
I normally stick with Occams razor but there seems to be missing pieces in this story.
Like I said this is tinfoil and hopefully hot sex was the end game.

[Lucinda]

13. I believe that General Ham's movement is just a normal rotation, and

General Allen is actually in line for a promotion (pending clearance of this email stuff)

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. Allen's promotion, to succeed Patreus is "delayed" now

"Obama has put that nomination on hold, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said Tuesday, while urging the Senate to "act swiftly" on his nomination of Gen. Joseph Dunford to succeed Allen as commander in Afghanistan."
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/13/john-allen-investigated-emails-petraeus-jill-kelley/1701651/

because of Allen's role in married woman and emails.

[Lucinda]

18. Yawp. That's why I said pending clearance. The news coming out now

is saying that they aren't finding any improper conduct (so far anyway)

[Generic Brad]

37. 30,000 e-mails doesn't leave a lot of time to devote to work

Just saying.

[Lucinda]

38. It wasn't 30k emails. They already walked that back.

[coalition_unwilling]

22. According to the link in my OP, Ham is resigning years short

of the mandatory retirement age. Don't think that qualifies as 'normal rotation':

"Is it payback or just shame? General Carter Ham, the combatant commander of Africa Command and a key figure in the Benghazi scandal, is retiring from the Army years short of the mandatory retirement age, according to the Washington Times."

OTOH, source is Moonie Washington Times, so who knows?

[Lucinda]

39. We didn't have the same source, and I didn't keep the link. My source said

his leaving that specific post was the normal time frame of rotation out of the position. I'll pop in a link if I run across it again.

[AngryAmish]

14. I think we have been at war too long

People have been pushed way past their limits. They are starting to go nuts.

[backscatter712]

15. Yep. Heads are rolling now that the GOP's October Surprise (aka Benghazi) blew up in their faces.

And heads should be rolling.

[butterfly77]

24. Yep...

I just saw Rep.Peter King a few hours ago and his enthusiam seems to be gone. Now,time for Cantor,Ryan,Henserling who is just as bad and thinks he can hide his hands after he throws some dirt. My main target McConnell.

[dsc]

19. arguably this is a long time coming

I was listening to a fascinating interview on NPR about how in WW2 generals and other officers were routinely relieved of command when they weren't doing a good job and given other duties that better fit their skills. Unlike today being relieved of command wasn't a career ender. Now we can have a war prosecuted incompetently as Iraq was with no general getting punished at all.

[kestrel91316]

20. I heard Petraeus is a Dominionist. How about the others? Anybody know?

Dominionists are snakes and need to be hunted down and removed from all branches of the service (AND government).

[backscatter712]

26. Yes, he personally pushed the Spiritual Fitness program on the army.

http://www.militaryreligiousfreedom.org/2012/11/huffington-post-hey-general-petraeus-hows-that-spiritual-fitness-stuff-working-for-you/

Good riddance to that fundie piece of trash!

[Blue_Tires]

21. You forgot about Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sinclair

who stepped down a few weeks ago:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014296249


not that these cases are related; i just wanted to add that one

[coalition_unwilling]

23. Sinclair was a Brigadier General. Not sure that's high enough, although

the shit hit the fan with him starting in May and he commanded the 82nd Airborne.

Thanks for the annotation, btw.

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. One or four that is a general officer

[backscatter712]

27. The Jeffery Sinclair from Babylon 5 was much cooler! n/t

[Renew Deal]

25. Has Allen stepped down?

[morningfog]

32. Not yet. But, his promotion has been stayed and the confirmation of

his replacement sped up.

[pa28]

29. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Something rotten is lurking just below the surface and it smells of Fox news, Eric Cantor, Carter Ham and David Petraeus.

I want this investigated and the principles questioned.

[coalition_unwilling]

30. Each time I think I understand the scope and severity of the matter, some new

tidbit comes to the surface.

I suppose this is what comes about when a democratic republic declines to an plutocratic empire and converts its military from an arm of the people into a Praetorian Guard. I would like to see Obama address the nation about this at some point although I recognize that's a vain hope.

[pa28]

31. I know what you mean.

At this point I'd say it's possible that high ranking people in the military were willing to sabotage the president over the Bengazi incident. That might explain the firings but we won't know for sure until the issue is investigated and made public.

[coalition_unwilling]

33. I hope if there were high-ranking people in the military willing and trying to

sabotage the President that his fixers squish them like bugs. I don't even need to know the specific details.

[jwirr]

34. Are these generals all bushies appointees?