I appreciate how unusual it was for several generals to call for Rumsfeld’s resignation. I’m hoping for some elaboration, though. What took the Brass so long? That’s not a rhetorical question. If so many of us could detect major problems even at the beginning, why did the generals wait until now to speak up?
— Was there a back-breaking straw in Rumsfeld’s micro-managing of generals (“Hi, I’m from Corporate and I’m here to help”)?
— Was it his arrogance towards the troops (“You go to war with the Army you have”)? Or the policy of refusing the filming of coffins returning to the U.S.?
— Did he cherry-pick yes-people/units rather than the best ones for Pentagon positions?
— Was he threatening to scape-goat generals for tactical errors causing failure?
— Did he refuse to meet with people who would tell him undigestible truth?
— Is he penny-wise and pound-foolish, a pitifully poor reorganizer after all?
Faced with derogatory news, his style is to turn it around and insult our intelligence:
Q: Mr. Secretary, there are voices in the Congress and elsewhere, including some belonging to retired senior military members, who are calling for your resignation. The president says he supports you and that you’re doing a good job. If that support continues, do you plan to stay for the rest of his second term?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Ivan, those kinds of calls have been going on for five-plus years. And the president has asked me not to get involved in politics, and that’s politics.
March 23, 2006 DoD News Briefingwww.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2006/tr20060323-12695.html
Yeah, right. He doesn’t get involved in politics…
“The fact that two or three or four retired people have different views — I respect their views — but obviously if, if out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the Secretary of Defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round.”
Sec. of Defense Rumsfeld
4-13-06 interview by Al-Arabiya (t.v. network)
Cut, slash. That’s how Rumsfeld belittles the retired generals, the professionals who — individually and collectively — know more about warfare and military administration than Rumsfeld could ever comprehend.
There’s a bright distinction between (1) efficiency reorganization and (2) the abuse of power for political purposes, at great cost in lives and funds.
This man needs some reality checks. Whatever he’s drinking won’t do the trick.
