A strong, coherent voice, crying in the wilderness has gone.

• William E. Odom, 75, a retired Army lieutenant general who was a senior military and intelligence official in the Carter and Reagan administrations and who, in recent years, became a forceful critic of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, died May 30 at his vacation home in Lincoln, Vt.
  An autopsy will be performed, but his wife said he had an apparent heart attack.
  — Washington Post, (6/1/08)

Gen. Odom was a most-extreme favorite here at Compatible Creatures, using his sensible knowledge against the shit-storm of stupid coming from Decider George’s administration.
We called Odom “Wild Bill,” but it was out of much appreciation for his voice of sanity in a GI world gone completely nuts.
He appeared many times on TV, especially on PBS, and he was a small, sort of innocuous-looking gentleman, but spoke with a different sound, a quiet voice that rang with a sharp eloquence, a fact-based set of words instead of jabbering bullshit.
And the nickname implied he was different than the other Pentagon mouthpieces.

“The only sensible strategy is to withdraw rapidly but in good order. Only that step can break the paralysis now gripping US strategy in the region.”
— ‘Will Bill’ Odom before the US Senate Committee Foreign Relations On Iraq in April.

He told the truth.