Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Now Hear This: From Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman

Former Secretary of the Navy John Lehman served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, the "independent, bipartisan commission" that was "chartered to prepare a full and complete account of the circumstances surrounding the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

This lends impressive weight to what Vigilis has been saying about the damaging effects of too many lawyers now in the military's chain of command...
Hat tip to WillyShake at Unconsidered Trifles for his in-person reporting of a recent address by John Lehman:
"Lehman leaves partisan politics at the door (for example, 'I would love to bash Hillary, but the matter goes beyond that...') and goes after what he perceives as the real problem that threatens our national security: Bloated, hyper-litigious, bureaucracy that is drunk on political correctness..."

and more....

"To illustrate this point, he noted that he recently met the CENTCOM lawyer who prevented the firing of a Hellfire missile at Mullah Omar when we had the chance to take him out. The lawyer was still quite adamant, said Lehman with disgust, that the attack would have violated Executive Order 11905, signed in 1976 by President Ford making it illegal for the US government to engage in assassinations of foreign heads of state. "