John Batiste

Iraq War views and more

In 2006, Batiste testified before the U.S. Senate regarding the lack of leadership by Donald H. Rumsfeld, the failure of the US Government to develop a comprehensive strategy to deal with worldwide Islamic extremism, and a failure to mobilize the country after 9-11 to accomplish the important work ahead. He has never been anti-war, but rather committed to doing things right. He asserts that the root cause for our disconnected ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan, and our failure to properly care for our Veterans returning from war, is that America went to war in 2001 without a national strategy to deal with global Islamic extremism with clearly defined ends, ways, and means. Such a strategy does not exist today. His recommendation is that either the president fix his executive branch problem, or Congress enacts legislation as a matter of priority to force upon the executive branch and interagency what the Goldwater Nichols Act did for the Department of Defense in 1986. Congress can compel the administration to organize for success with clearly defined responsibilities and a strategic planning process with trained planners in every department and agency. We expect and deserve a government that is capable of developing and executing a national strategy. Short of this, we will continue to spin our wheels in responding to natural disasters, leaking oil wells, financial crisis, border control, and global extremism. Rumsfeld surrounded himself with like-minded, compliant subordinates who violated basic principles of war and sound military planning in the mission to change the regime in Iraq. The nation rushed to war without exhausting all diplomatic, political and economic options.^[7]

Batiste said, on CBS's The Early Show:^[4] "...we went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we took down the regime. We also served under a secretary of defense who didn't understand leadership, who was abusive, who was arrogant, and who didn't build a strong team."

Batiste also said: "I think the current administration repeatedly ignored sound military advice and counsel with respect to the war plans."^[8]

Regarding the idea of a "war-czar" post in president Bush's U.S. government cabinet, Batiste commented: "Standing up a war czar is just throwing in another layer of bureaucracy. Excuse me, but we have a chain of command already and it's time for our leaders to step up and take charge."^[9]

Batiste appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer in April 2006. When asked about his proposed strategy for Iraq, he said, "Well, to begin with, I think we must complete the mission in Iraq. We have no option; we need to be successful and protect our strategic interests in the region; we need to set the Iraqi people up for self-reliance with their form of representative government that takes into account tribal, religious and ethnic complexity that has always defined Iraq. The Brits had a difficult time with that in the '10s and '20s of the last century; nothing new at all. And we must set the people of Iraq up for self-reliance so they can go on it on their own. I think we're going to be successful. There's nothing this country can't do, if we put our mind to it, but we need to do it right. We need to mobilize this country and employ a comprehensive regional and global strategy."^[10]

In May 2007, Batiste appeared in a political ad for VoteVets.org that was critical of President George W. Bush and the war in Iraq. Two days later, CBS stated that appearing in the ad violated the network’s regulations, and terminated his contract as a result.^[11][12][13]

In testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives in June 2007, Batiste said, "Secondary interests are that our withdrawal cannot create a humanitarian disaster or an Iraq dominated by another state(s) in the region. This may require a residual force of up to 30,000 US troops for decades to protect the US mission, train and advise the Iraqi security forces, provide a counter balance to unintended consequences of Iran and a greater "Kurdistan", and take direct action against residual Al Qaeda in Iraq. We cannot walk away from our strategic interests."^[14]

In late 2007, he asserted that the military alone would not be successful in Iraq. On December 8, 2007, Batiste co-wrote an editorial in the Washington Post stating, "Third, the counterinsurgency campaign led by Gen. David Petraeus is the correct approach in Iraq. It is showing promise of success and, if continued, will provide the Iraqi government the opportunities it desperately needs to stabilize its country. Ultimately, however, these military gains must be cemented with regional and global diplomacy, political reconciliation, and economic recover—tools yet sufficiently utilized. Today's tactical gains in Iraq—while a necessary pre-condition for political reconciliation—will crumble without a deliberate and comprehensive strategy". He argues that at the moment, such a strategy does not exist.^[15]