Former US general calls for Rumsfeld to go
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1753266,00.html
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.
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.
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