Tweet
6th or 7th General calls for Rummy's Head on a Platter
Former US general calls for Rumsfeld to go
James Sturcke
Thursday April 13, 2006
A fourth former US army general in less than a month today called on the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to resign over his handling of the war in Iraq.
Retired Major General John Batiste - who commanded the US 1st Infantry Division in Iraq from 2004 until last year - criticised Mr Rumsfeld's authoritarian style and called for a "fresh start" at the top of the Pentagon.
"We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork," Maj Gen Batiste said.
He told CNN he believed the Bush administration's handling of the war had violated fundamental military principles such as unity of command and unity of effort.
He said negative feelings among US generals he served with were widespread, and there was almost universal belief that Mr Rumsfeld did not treat military leaders and their opinions with respect.
The Washington Post reported that the retired soldier had been offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq, and would have become the second most senior US officer in the country.
He declined because he no longer wanted to work under Mr Rumsfeld.
His comments followed similar attacks by three other retired generals who either served in Iraq or the Middle East.
Last month, Paul Eaton, a former major general who was in charge of training Iraqi forces until 2004, said Mr Rumsfeld was "not competent to lead our armed forces".
He said the US defence secretary had shown himself "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically", and was "far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq".
Earlier this month, Anthony Zinni, the commander in chief of the US Central Command and in charge of all American troops in the Middle East from 1997 to 2000, joined the calls for changes at the Pentagon.
Mr Zinni said Mr Rumsfeld should resign for a series of disastrous strategic and political mistakes.
This week, Greg Newbold, a retired lieutenant general who was director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 to 2002, criticised "missteps and misjudgments" by the White House and the Pentagon.
"What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures," he wrote in Time magazine.
He said that included the distortion of intelligence in the build-up to war, micromanagement that prevented US forces having sufficient resources to do the job and the alienation of allies.
"That means replacing Rumsfeld and many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach," he wrote.
The fallout between parts of the military and Mr Rumsfeld began after the treatment of retired Army General Eric Shinseki, who told a congressional hearing that several hundred thousand US troops would be needed bring peace to Iraq.
He was later criticised by the former deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and was sidelined.
On Tuesday, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said generals had the chance to voice their concerns during the planning of the Iraq invasion.
"We had then and have now every opportunity to speak our minds, and if we do not, shame on us," he said at a Pentagon briefing.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
James Sturcke
Thursday April 13, 2006
A fourth former US army general in less than a month today called on the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to resign over his handling of the war in Iraq.
Retired Major General John Batiste - who commanded the US 1st Infantry Division in Iraq from 2004 until last year - criticised Mr Rumsfeld's authoritarian style and called for a "fresh start" at the top of the Pentagon.
"We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork," Maj Gen Batiste said.
He told CNN he believed the Bush administration's handling of the war had violated fundamental military principles such as unity of command and unity of effort.
He said negative feelings among US generals he served with were widespread, and there was almost universal belief that Mr Rumsfeld did not treat military leaders and their opinions with respect.
The Washington Post reported that the retired soldier had been offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq, and would have become the second most senior US officer in the country.
He declined because he no longer wanted to work under Mr Rumsfeld.
His comments followed similar attacks by three other retired generals who either served in Iraq or the Middle East.
Last month, Paul Eaton, a former major general who was in charge of training Iraqi forces until 2004, said Mr Rumsfeld was "not competent to lead our armed forces".
He said the US defence secretary had shown himself "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically", and was "far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq".
Earlier this month, Anthony Zinni, the commander in chief of the US Central Command and in charge of all American troops in the Middle East from 1997 to 2000, joined the calls for changes at the Pentagon.
Mr Zinni said Mr Rumsfeld should resign for a series of disastrous strategic and political mistakes.
This week, Greg Newbold, a retired lieutenant general who was director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 to 2002, criticised "missteps and misjudgments" by the White House and the Pentagon.
"What we are living with now is the consequences of successive policy failures," he wrote in Time magazine.
He said that included the distortion of intelligence in the build-up to war, micromanagement that prevented US forces having sufficient resources to do the job and the alienation of allies.
"That means replacing Rumsfeld and many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach," he wrote.
The fallout between parts of the military and Mr Rumsfeld began after the treatment of retired Army General Eric Shinseki, who told a congressional hearing that several hundred thousand US troops would be needed bring peace to Iraq.
He was later criticised by the former deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and was sidelined.
On Tuesday, General Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said generals had the chance to voice their concerns during the planning of the Iraq invasion.
"We had then and have now every opportunity to speak our minds, and if we do not, shame on us," he said at a Pentagon briefing.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006
Comment