Donald Rumsfeld Not Admired By Generals
Recently, a group of high-ranking retired military officers have severely criticized Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. The latest is Major General John Batiste who is calling for “a fresh start” at the top of the pentagon. He called on Rumsfeld to resign. Referring to Rumsfeld, General Batiste commented “we need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork.” Click here to read the story in the Washington Post.
General Batiste knows of what he speaks having served as Senior Military Advisor to Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, during the planning phase of the Iraq war. General Batiste is newly retired after returning from Iraq where he commanded the 1st Infantry Division in 2005 – 2005. He recently retired rather than accept a promotion and re-assignment to Iraq as second in command of U.S. forces in Iraq. Ostensibly the reason for retiring was that General Batiste no longer wishes to serve under Rumsfeld.
But this is not the only voice calling for the resignation of Rumsfeld. Marine Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold has just written an essay in Time Magazine and called for “replacing Rumsfeld and many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach.” Words like “micro-management” and incompetence are used in these interviews.
Last month, Major General Paul Eaton of the U.S. Army wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times in which he called Rumsfeld “incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically.”
And if that is not enough, retired Marine General Paul Zinni has written a new book entitled “The Battle for Peace” in which he too calls Rumsfeld to resign. He goes further to say “we have wasted three years in Iraq.
Here is a link to the Los Angeles Times and Voice of America for related stories.
And the beat goes on. Two more Generals have joined the chorus of voices as detailed here in the London Times Online edition.