RIP Norman Schwarzkopf

One of the first "rock star" generals of the post Vietnam era has passed away:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ap-source-retired-gen-norman-schwarzkopf-has-died-in-tampa-fla/2012/12/27/ec648c10-5083-11e2-835b-02f92c0daa43_story.html

 

How sad. I was just doing a lot of reading up on him after the Petraeus scandal, as I was needing to be reminded of a recent great general after all that. Personally, I agreed with his politics only about 25% of the time, but what a class act.

 

Loved his combat video narration.
Only class I ever failed was in early 1991, when I couldn't stop watching CNN.

 

RIP to not just an American hero, but someone who helped make it OK to be proud of America again.

 

Oh, gimme a break. Were you ashamed to be an American before 1991?

No offense to the ole general, but what the hell did he do that would cause one to change their fundamental view on whether it's ok to be proud to be an american or not?

 

Jimmy Carter. Duh.

 

Nothing more needed to be done. Saddam was contained. Our obligation was at a reasonable cost, and the world was on our side. Stormin' Norman and Bush the Elder orchestrated this one-float parade, and Bush the Younger managed to fuck it up.

R.I.P., General.

 

Now this is a reasonable take.

I will give Norman, Colin and the elder Bush credit for competently managing Gulf War I as it should've been handled. They successfully put Saddam in a box where he was easily contained and no longer a threat, and they kept the rest of the world largely on our side. BUT they don't get bonus points simply for not being the monumentally atrocious and disastrous screw ups that baby Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were 12 years later. And there's nothing he did to "make it ok to be proud to be an American again." Where that take came from is beyond me.

 

Toby Keith never lost faith. He stayed proud.

 

Even Norman Schwarzkopf's decisive victory wasn't enough to make everyone proud of America:

-- Michelle Obama, February 2008

 

He was the host of the first nationally-televised war.

 

I can still see Charles Jaco diving under a desk during a live report.