Three More Retired Generals Call for Rumsfeld Resignation

It all started with Brent Scowcroft. He pulled his finger out of the dyke, and now it’s turning into a deluge. Grab the babies and the old ladies and head for high ground, because now the floodgates are open.

Retired Army Major General John Batiste, former commander of the legendary Big Red One, called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in an interview on CNN. “I believe we need a fresh start in the Pentagon.” General Batiste declared. “We need a leader who understands teamwork, a leader who knows how to build teams, a leader who does it without intimidation.”

A day later, the General who commanded the 82nd Airborne in Iraq in 2003 and 2004, retired Major General Charles Swannack, joined the chorus. “Rumsfeld carries way too much baggage with him.” General Swannack told CNN on Thursday.

This news had barely hit the airwaves when Retired Army Major General John Riggs stepped up and called for the resignation of the Defense Secretary in an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, stating that we need a Secretary of Defense who leads, not one who fosters an “atmosphere of arrogance.” You may recall that before he was forced to retire, Riggs was the General who lost a star for having the audacity to say out loud and outside proper channels that Rumsfeld and the administration had discounted or dismissed advice from the commanders in the field about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and placed the blame for the failure of the mission where it belongs, with the members of this administration, not with the troops and commanders in the field. (I’m sure it was a calculated risk, and he knew full measure what the fallout would be when he chose, as an active duty member of the armed services, to speak up and speak out. The military frowns on statements by its personnel that take place outside proper channels.)

I will cite this as a firmly held personal belief: This administration has lost the Officer Corps. Anyone with any military background at all, even if it only involves watching war movies and the History Channel, recognizes that when the (retired) commanders of the Big Red One and the 82nd Airborne publicly turn against the Secretary of Defense who authored the war plan they were charged to execute, it’s time for a new Secretary of Defense.

In other countries, situations like this lead to bloody coups. I don’t think that will happen here, we still have a few shreds of the Honor Code left that we can piece back together, but the next president has a hell of a job ahead of him – or her – when they take over from the Current Occupant. The next President will be faced with regaining the trust of the military, especially the officer corps, those entrusted to command and lead, who make decisions involving life and death over you and your loved ones once the choice to serve has been made. Accomplishing this will be no mean feat, but there will be no room for failure, just as there was no room for failure in the wake of that last great indigenous boondoggle, Viet Nam. (Didn’t these guys get the memo? Never start a land war in Asia.)

When all the good men leave, who is left in charge? All four branches are hemmoraging seasoned officers of every rank at a rate seen only twice in this nations history: The first instance occurred when half the officer corps left en masse to command the confederate forces during the Civil War. The second time was in the wake of the Viet Nam war. When will presidents realize that when you give a man or woman the best education in the world, that person is going to be smart enough to figure out when they are being lied to. They forgot that part of the equation then, just as they are forgetting it now.

By acting on the courage of their convictions, General Batiste, General Riggs, and General Swannack join a chorus of retired Generals that includes Anthony Zinni and Gregory Newbold of the Marine Corps and Paul Eaton of the Army who have called for Rumsfeld to resign in recent months. No one is quoting the junior officers who have retired or otherwise resigned commissions, and are now speaking out, but the number of officers in opposition grows daily, and may soon reach critical mass. (When it does, look for bombs to rain down on Tehran. You read it here first.)

The pugnacious Rumsfeld truly finds himself at war with the Army he has, not the Army he wishes he had, as seasoned officers resign in droves, and begin to speak out against this administration and their war of attrition. The Generals who are leading the charge have led troops into battle in the current war. They did not rise to the levels they achieved by not having the unflagging loyalty and trust of the troops they commanded, and that loyalty, respect, and trust does not evaporate with retirement or resignation of commission. These men still hold the same amount of esteem as they did before. The active duty troops are listening.

The President would do well to heed the clarion call of these Generals, these men who put up without a fuss when the time came, these men who stood up when all around them others were having a seat. How sad that they mean so little to this president – which tells me he was never a real officer, he was faking it to avoid the big show.

Instead of facing the facts, the president seems intent on a pledge of blind fealty to a failed autocrat.