Free Where Have All the Leaders Gone? by Lee Iacocca, Catherine Whitney Page A

allowed in the room. Secretary of State Colin Powell even got fooled. And now that we’ve made a mess of things, the only way out is to start telling the truth.
    The generals finally came forward to do just that, although it took them three years. If anyone doubts how much trouble we’re in, just listen to the generals. They say that the rhetoric of the White House hasn’t been matched by either resources or resolve . The drumbeats have drowned out common sense. They say we are bankrupt in leadership.
    Iraq is a war nobody wanted—unless you count Iran, who has watched us accomplish what their eight-year war with Iraq could not. Unless you count the Taliban in Afghanistan, whose narcotics trade is thriving. George Bush says our enemies “hate us for our freedom.” They really hate us for our arrogance. But they love it when we get stupid. And, folks, we’ve been stupid. Big time.
     
    THE LESSONS OF HISTORY
     
    One of the qualities that made Winston Churchill a great leader was his historical imagination. “The longer you look back,” he wrote, “the farther you can look forward.” He once complained to a friend, “We live in the most thoughtless of ages. Every day headlines and short views. I have tried to drag history up a little nearer to our own times in case it should be a guide in present difficulties.” Good idea!
    The war in Iraq is a failure of historical imagination. Didn’t we learn any lessons from Vietnam? Vietnam was also a failure of historical imagination, which showed that we learned nothing from Korea.
    Many years ago, Joseph Califano, who was a member of Lyndon Johnson’s and later Jimmy Carter’s administration, told me this story. It was right after Johnson had been elected in 1964, and Johnson and Califano went to visit General Douglas MacArthur, who was retired and living in the Waldorf Towers in New York City. MacArthur said to Johnson, “Sonny, never get involved in a land war in Asia.” When they left his apartment, Johnson was furious. “Did you hear that?” he asked Califano. “The son of a bitch called me Sonny. I’m the President of the United States, and he called me Sonny!” He couldn’t get over it. Unfortunately, Johnson missed the real message—the one about the ground war in Asia. Kennedy missed it, too, because I understand that MacArthur told him the same thing. I wonder if he called JFK Sonny.
    When the Bush administration said we would be greeted as liberators, I knew right away we were in trouble. The lessons of history would have told a different story, but history was never consulted.
     
    TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
     
    When I talk to John Murtha, he says he feels personally betrayed. In his heart Murtha is still a marine. You never stop being a marine. He feels responsible for the guys we’ve placed in peril without a plan for winning. Murtha spends his weekends visiting the wounded at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. He describes their injuries as horrible. Those who survive roadside bombings—the most common injury—usually have massive head injuries and loss of limbs. Their families are crying, begging Murtha to do something. They believe their kids have become nothing more than targets, driving around in poorly armored Humvees and getting blown up. For what ?
    Have you noticed that we never hear much about the wounded? The media keeps a running count of the dead, but why not the wounded? Where do you even find out how many have been wounded? Let me tell you something. It’s not easy. The Pentagon doesn’t publish that information unless it is specifically requested by the media. Why do you think that is? Could it be because the number is so big ? I challenge the media to do just that. Put the number in bold print, right next to the number for those killed. (For your information, the official number of Americans wounded in action in Iraq is currently around 24,000, but that doesn’t account for thousands of non-combat injuries.)
    And