Ret.Gen. Paul Eaton: Rumsfeld has put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego

Paul D. Eaton, a retired Army major general who was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004, takes an important and courageous stand against this administration's war in Iraq.

A Top-Down Review for the Pentagon
By PAUL D. EATON
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/19/opinion/19eaton.html?pagewanted=print

{snips}

". . . Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is not competent to lead our armed forces. First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called "old Europe" has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input.

In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.

So, what to do?

First, President Bush should accept the offer to resign that Mr. Rumsfeld says he has tendered more than once, and hire a man who will listen to and support the magnificent soldiers on the ground.
(here he hawks Leiberman, but I'll dismiss that as a rookie dissenter's mistake of trying to split the difference between parties)

More vital in the longer term, Congress must assert itself. Too much power has shifted to the executive branch, not just in terms of waging war but also in planning the military of the future. Congress should remember it still has the power of the purse; it should call our generals, colonels, captains and sergeants to testify frequently, so that their opinions and needs are known to the men they lead. Then when they are asked if they have enough troops — and no soldier has ever had enough of anything, more is always better — the reply is public.

Our most important, and sometimes most severe, judges are our subordinates. That is a fact I discovered early in my military career. It is, unfortunately, a lesson Donald Rumsfeld seems incapable of learning."

This is another crack in Bush's armor. Another general who was involved in Iraq who is calling for accountability. He deserves an ear if he continues his public campaign against Rumsfeld and Bush's war.

These military men are fed up with the abuse of the military and the bad decisions this administration has made.

The article is right on....Rumsfeld was never a military man and he knows nothing of the military!!
Another hack another day....

written a long time ago (about 5 years ago). This was before we even marched into Iraq.

"As the generals sharpen their knives, they ponder the distance between Rumsfeld's ribs".

for Def. Sec.?

What experience does he have in that field - heck, even Rummy served two years in the Navy during peace time. I don't think Holy Joe ever served - did he? In the absense of serving, what else has he done to merit the push for this position?

He's a hawk who treasonously sides with Israel over what is good for the United States? Gee, that's helpful. :sarcasm:

I doubt he knows a wit about the differences between candidates or politicos. He'll have to learn if he wants to continue his criticisms. The Bush regime won't allow him to be part of their club anymore. I suspect that, before long, Joementum will step on the general on the way to kissing Bush's . . . ring.

like Major General Eaton who are willing to speak out against the hubris of BushCo. Then we need people in Congress who are willing to recognize that the power shift to the imperial administration is fundamentally wrong. Eaton calls it right--sometimes the "most severe, (sic) judges are our subordinates." BushCo's solution is the deaf ear and the blind eye. Both impair.

and recommended.

They can't get anyone else to take the job.

Seriously, I think that's the only reason. Would YOU want to clean up Rumsfeld's mess? I sure as shit wouldn't. I don't think it can be cleaned up at this point. Whoever takes over from Rumsfeld is going to be in charge of managing the withdrawal, that's all. Nobody wants to be holding the bag for that.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

I heard David Brooks on npr last Friday saying Rummy richly deserved to be fired, but he says it won't happen because Bush and Cheney were in the same room when he made all his boneheaded decisions.

Of course, that would lead me to think if this was the case, that Bush and Cheney should go, too, but this is David Brooks we're talking about here.

Here's my take on Rummy's Op-Ed on the war.

"This Sunday, he contended that victory over the Soviet Union was achieved in part through the creation of the "Many new institutions and programs of the Truman years," meaning the National Security state. What he doesn't mention, of course, is that the military industrial complex --- which Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against --- was the natural outgrowth of these new institutions and programs that made a new perpetual war on something --- anything --- inevitable after the Cold War. Filling this vacuum of peace is the real purpose of our new declared-undeclared war.

After the fall of an atrophied and bankrupt Soviet Union, Rummy and his buddy Dick-shot Cheney and their benefactors in the defense industry, desperately needed to come up with a new boggy man to justify their continued bloated defense budgets ad infinitum. The threatening specter of a "peace dividend" was anathema for the neocons and their new American century. Just as their predecessors after WWII had to sell the threat of an ill-defined "Communist menace," the Rummy/Cheney cabal now has to push the equally dubious "long war" against the global "struggle against violent extremists." This constant fear mongering is imperative in order to keep the vast majority if tax-payer money flowing into the coffers of Halliburton and away from health care, education and other social programs designed to mitigate the ravages of unrestrained capitalism."

It's a bit too long for this forum, so read the rest if you dare.

http://imnotworthy.blogspot.com/