To have retired military speak out against a Cabinet nominee is unprecedented in US history. Obviously dismayed about the loss of US prestige related to the abuse of prisoners, the Generals believe that the US has suffered a loss of respect in the world today, and have targeted the torture doctrine author, White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales, who has been nominated to be attorney general by Bush II.

Gonzales Nomination Draws Military Criticism
Retired Officers Cite His Role in Shaping Policies on Torture

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 4, 2005; Page A02

A dozen high-ranking retired military officers took the unusual step yesterday of signing a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee expressing "deep concern" over the nomination of White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales as attorney general, marking a rare military foray into the debate over a civilian post.

The group includes retired Army Gen. John M. Shalikashvili, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officers are one of several groups to separately urge the Senate to sharply question Gonzales during a confirmation hearing Thursday about his role in shaping legal policies on torture and interrogation methods.
The letter signed by the retired officers, compiled by the group Human Rights First and sent to the committee's leadership last night, criticizes Gonzales for his role in reviewing and approving a series of memorandums arguing, among other things, that the United States could lawfully ignore portions of the Geneva Conventions and that some forms of torture "may be justified" in the war on terror.

"Today, it is clear that these operations have fostered greater animosity toward the United States, undermined our intelligence gathering efforts and added to the risks facing our troops serving around the world," the officers wrote, referring to the Bush administration's detention and interrogation policies.

Although it stops short of directly opposing Gonzales's nomination, the three-page letter contains sharp criticism of his decisions related to military legal issues and argues that he is "on the wrong side of history."

"Repeatedly in our past, the United States has confronted foes that, at the time they emerged, posed threats of a scope or nature unlike any we had previously faced," the letter reads. "But we have been far more steadfast in the past in keeping faith with our national commitment to the rule of law."

In addition to Shalikashvili, other prominent signatories to the letter include retired Marine Gen. Joseph P. Hoar, former chief of the Central Command; former Air Force Chief of Staff Merrill A. McPeak; and Lt. Gen. Claudia J. Kennedy, the Army's first female three-star general. Several, including Shalikashvili, supported the failed presidential candidacy of Democrat John F. Kerry.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45727-2005Jan3.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/la-na-gonzales5jan05,1,1613506.story?coll=la-news-politics-national&ctrack=1&cset=true

another note on Gonzo:
When he (Gonzo) was with old Dubya in Texas as the legal counsel to the Governor, one of his jobs was to review the Texas Parole Board's petitions for clemency or commutation of death sentences to life without parole. Gonzales NEVER recommended any acceptance of these petitions to Bush and as you have probably heard, more prisoners were put to death on Bush's watch than in the history of the State of Texas. Did they execute any innocent people? Of course they did. Texas has had an abysmal record in capital trials for years