Kalev I. Sepp Quotes
A defection is better than a surrender, a surrender is better than a capture, and a capture is better than a kill.
Kalev I. Sepp, Army Special Forces Colonel and Counterinsurgency Expert, Professor at the U. S. naval Postgraduate School, Memo advising General George W. Casey Jr., the U. S. Military Commander in Iraq, November 2004
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In 1991 Bush’s father, and his military and security advisors, after winning an overwhelming victory and accomplishing the war aims stated of rolling back the Iraqi aggression, decided that it was not worth the loss of American and Iraqi lives to try and occupy Bagdad and change the regime. America and its large coalition withdrew in victory having restored the pre-aggression status quo. The son and some of the right wing and neo conservatives always saw that strategy as a mistake and this quotation is often cited as showing this psychological animus to that decision of his father. His use of the term “cut and run” which implies defeat and some lack of courage is surprising to some as America and the coalition did anything but run as they had killed and destroyed far more or the Iraqi military power than the son’s later war did. It was a withdrawal and there were critics at the time, but no one accused the elder Bush of “cut and run” except that is the way the son obviously saw it.
As an educational and military leader, he saw the importance of each in a nation’s welfare.
During the Iraq War, the Congressman partially changed his mind the following year and called for a plan to move American troops to the periphery of the fighting. A highly decorated war hero with two Purple Hearts, he was then called a coward, by some Republican members of Congress and the Bush Administration—almost always by people who had never served in the military and often sought and obtained deferments.
Dr. Kalev I. Sepp is senior lecturer in defense analyst at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
