Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, USA (ret.)

JINSA’s Flag & General Officers Trip to Israel has, for 20 years, taken recently retired American officers to Israel (and, more recently, Jordan) for an opportunity to learn more about a critical area of American national security interest. More than 250 officers have participated, and although we ask nothing of them upon their return, many have chosen to remain associated with JINSA in some way.

JINSA’s Flag & General Officers Trip to Israel has, for 20 years, taken recently retired American officers to Israel (and, more recently, Jordan) for an opportunity to learn more about a critical area of American national security interest. More than 250 officers have participated, and although we ask nothing of them upon their return, many have chosen to remain associated with JINSA in some way.

“Associated” generally means that they are willing to answer our questions. They have been, without a doubt, the best source of military information and strategy that JINSA could imagine. We ask, they answer. We ask again and they answer again. And again. We are enormously in their collective debt for the time and effort they put into helping us understand the requirements of American national security and defense policy. They teach; we learn. Got it?

And, to some extent, over the years we have learned to think a little bit like they do – although we don’t flatter ourselves into thinking that we do it as well as they do. And so, on occasion, JINSA crafts a statement of policy that we believe reflects the American military way of thinking, and we ask them to sign on if they agree. JINSA statements have covered Export Controls, American policy toward Syria and the Golan Heights, and yes, the Palestinian-orchestrated violence against Israel. Got it?

Why the emphasis? Because the press has noticed that Lt. Gen. Jay Garner, USA (ret.) – soon to be military coordinator in Iraq – traveled to Israel with JINSA and signed our October 2000 statement. The insinuation, aloud or not, is that his participation in our endeavor means that JINSA influenced or changed his thinking on crucial issues of American national security policy, and furthermore that an appreciation for Israel is a detriment to the formulation of Iraq policy. Behind the insinuation is the canard that JINSA (or Jews) are running this war for purposes at odds with American national interest. JINSA has more than once been referred to as the center of a “cabal” by people who look for conspiracies hiding under the bed with their dust bunnies.

Uh …

There is no group more dedicated to American national security, more independent-minded and less susceptible to “influence” than those military men and women who have spent a professional lifetime in service to our country. The idea that 10 days in the company of JINSA, traveling in a democratic and friendly country, would fundamentally alter his understanding of the requirements of American policy in Iraq is ludicrous and highly offensive.

Maybe we should take credit for running the world, but in truth, the fact that certain serious and important people lend themselves to the work of JINSA is an indication that they have found us to be a compatible, credible, American institution. They surely don’t need us to tell them how or what to think.