Step Down Mr. R

The fact that six generals would go beyond a long-standing muzzle code to break the silence and publically call for Defense Secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld's resignation is a sweeping indictment of the Bush administration.

Military career personnel believe they are a unique culture unto themselves and they exercise a credo that expressly prohibits expressing political beliefs outside of military channels. Major General John Batiste recently summed the attitude up in an interview on Jim Lehrer's PBS news show: "There are times that you're told to do things that you don't agree with and you're given an opportunity to rebut, to give reasons why it shouldn't be that way. And at the end of the day, you either salute and execute or you make a decision to retire and resign; that's the way it is. There's always that dialogue."

All six of these retired generals have sacraficed promising careers rather than salute and execute orders which are fundamentally a misuse of power and are inherently wrong. Let us all stand and salute the integrity of: Major General John Batiste, Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, Major General Paul D. Eaton, General Anthony C. Zinni, Major General John Riggs and Major General Charles H. Swannack Jr. While we are saluting let's include: former Army Chief of Staff General Eric K. Shinseki, former Army secretary Thomas E. White, and General Wesley Clark.

Lieutenant General Greg Newbold's recent statement in a Time magazine article expresses what many active and retired officers feel: "The consequence of the military's quiescence was that a fundamentally flawed plan was executed for an invented war, while pursuing the real enemy, al-Qaeda, became a secondary effort."

These officers had to retire in order to speak out and they are calling for Rumsfeld's resignation for these reasons:

Rumsfeld is the chief architect of this misguided and flawed Iraq war

He ignored the tactical judgements of experienced military commanders and directly opposed their views

Which leaves the military to cope with the consequesnces of successive policy failures; including:

a) distortion of intelligence in the buildup to the war

b) micromanagement by civil authorities (or in this case authority) which prevented our forces from having the resources needed to do the job and

c) alienation of allies who could have helped rebuild Iraq

In essence, when Rumsfeld forced the resignation of the then, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki a month before the 2003 invasion for expressing a truthful assessment of the required amount of troops needed for a successful occupation of Iraq, he effectively forced the resignation of all officiating and desenting military personnel who operate by a code of ethics rather than by Rumsfeld's code of lawless dishonesty the effects of which have murdered more than 2360 American citizens needlessly

These generals feel a sense of betrayal by the nation's leaders who are ignorant and casual about war; nation's leaders who have mismanaged the conduct of it, and who have ordered the march of troops to an ill-considered engagement resulting in their slaughter.

Former NATO commander General Wesley Clark told Fox news: "It's more than appropriate (for these generals to speak out), it's their responsibility. I believe Rumsfeld hasn't done an adequate job. He should go."

It's highly unlikely that the chief architect of this senseless Iraq war, who also engineered the torture plans at Abu Ghraib, will abdicate his position of power voluntarily.

To expect the corrupt to act honorably is an exercise of the witless.

What is needed is for more generals to step outside of their self-imposed "culture" and speak out adamantly requesting Rumsfeld's resignation before he can do more harm to America.
Step Down Mr. R © 2006 Chaeli Lee Sullivan