Where have all of the intelligent soldiers gone?

The short answer is Donald Rumsfeld fired them all. Here, from the "Truth to Power" folks at McClatchy is what's left.
Pace: Don't judge success in Iraq by level of violence

WASHINGTON — Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the success of the U.S. troop surge in Iraq should be measured not by whether violence is reduced, but by whether Iraqis feel better about their nation's future.

Now I don't know about you but somehow that sounds really stupid to me. If you were living in the living hell that is reality in Iraq could you feel better about your nation's future if the violence continued unabated? Pace sounds about as moronic as his old boss - he's just not as good with words. The Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld legacy will be a US military that will take at least a generation to rebuild.