No longer stormin’
Interesting piece in the Washington Post the other day, an interview with Norman Schwarzkopf (may require you to fill in a brief non-identifying form before you can get to the article) in which it's revealed that Schwarzkopf "thinks U.N. inspections are still the proper course to follow. He's worried about the cockiness of the U.S. war plan, and even more by the potential human and financial costs of occupying Iraq."
Partly I just find it interesting that Schwarzkopf isn't happy with the administration's plans, though it sounds like part of that may stem from personal disagreements with Rumsfeld. Partly I think the dissection of the ending of the Gulf War is kinda interesting:
Some strategic thinkers, both inside the military and in academia, ... argue that if the 1991 war had been terminated more thoughtfully, the U.S. military wouldn't have to go back again to finish the job.
...
When Army colonels study the Gulf War at the Army War College nowadays, notes one professor there, "a big part of the class is discussing war termination."
...
[Schwarzkopf notes that] Washington never instructed him to invade Iraq or oust Saddam Hussein. "My mission, plain and simple, was kick Iraq out of Kuwait. Period. There were never any other orders." Given the information available back then, the decision to stop the war with Saddam Hussein still in power was, he says, "probably was the only decision that could have been made at that time."
The article goes on to discuss Schwarzkopf's intentional distancing of himself from the army after the Gulf War, and to wax philosophical about whether Americans have heroes these days.