Saturday, April 15, 2006
Rumsfeld's Potential Resignation
So now there are five. Five generals have called for Rumsfeld’s resignation.
Lt. General Greg Newbold, former director of operations at the Pentagon’s joint staff; Paul Eaton, a Major General who was in charge of training the Iraqi army in 2003 and 2004; General Anthony Zinni, former commander of CENTCOM; and Maj. General John Batiste, former commander of the 1st infantry division in Iraq.
John Bastiste’s story is especially amazing. The Washington Post states Batiste's comments resonate especially within the Army: It is widely known there that he was offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq and be the No. 2 U.S. military officer there but he declined because he no longer wished to serve under Rumsfeld.”
Ouch. Jesus God, when your potential top commanders are turning down major promotions to be the No. 2 ranking officer in Iraq you have a problem with your military.
These are high-ranking generals who were intimately involved with the war planning. With regards to Batiste, the Post says that “Also, before going to Iraq, he worked at the highest level of the Pentagon, serving as the senior military assistant to Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense.”
Zinni is a four-star general. You just don’t get any higher than that. Eric Shinseki, the Army Chief of Staff, voiced his disagreements about the number of troops we were using very publicly, in front of congress. Shinseki was rewarded by having his successor named over a year before he retired, undercutting his authority and ushering him out the door. That would be the Chief of Staff of the Army, in case you missed it the first time. The highest-ranking army officer in the United States. He was right, as we all know now.
Another Major General, Riggs, has added his voice to the chorus.
Rumsfeld defended himself by saying that he serves “at the pleasure of the president” and asserting that there are “thousands” of retired generals and admirals out there so that “two or three or four” (try five) calling for his resignation is no biggie.
Rumsfeld does indeed serve at the pleasure of the president. It is true that being the SECDEF is not a popularity contest. The first part of his assertion is true.
The second part is flatly false. These men aren’t brigadier generals in charge of a little base in Germany, for God’s sake: these are the highest-ranking generals in the Army and Marines who were at the epicenter of the decision-making process, with the exception of Zinni, who retired in September 2000.
I mean, Newbold was a Lt. General, Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. That’s bigtime. He retired in October 2002, “in part because of my opposition to those who had used 9/11's tragedy to hijack our security policy.”
No other Secretary of Defense in history has had to deal with the level of discontent among his most senior officers. Even Macnamara didn’t.
Rumsfeld has said that he has offered his resignation to the president several times. It should be accepted. While changing Rumsfeld by itself will be a superficial change, he is one of several who simply must go. He has been at the epicenter of the decisions to manipulate intelligence, to invade Iraq with too few soldiers, detain suspected militants indefinitely without charges, and use “forceful interrogation techniques” against detainees.
This is a disastrous and criminal record.
In other news, good story at Gilliard about bad reporting on Iran’s nukes…
# posted by BitterHarvest @ 10:21 AM 
