Yesterday, calling on the US to keep its nerve, Mr Rumsfeld pointed to
the swelling ranks of Iraqi government forces.
But Mr Eaton, a former major general, said the 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".
Mr Rumsfeld had to step down, he said.
Since the invasion of Iraq three years ago, the US military has lost
more than 2,300 troops in combat, roadside explosions, insurgent
attacks and friendly fire.
But that figure is dwarfed by estimates for the number of Iraqis
killed, which range from a conservative 30,000 to a more speculative
100,000.
As many as 50 people are killed every day.
Britain has lost 103 soldiers in Iraq, while other nations together
have lost 94 troops.
But the cost of war has not just been measured in human terms.
There is the financial cost.
The US is still spending $6bn a month in Iraq, primarily on the
130,000 troops it still maintains in the country.
From The Guardian, 3/20/06:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1734831,00.html
Rumsfeld singled out as crisis deepens in Iraq
· Defence chief attacked on war's third anniversary
· Ex-PM Allawi says conflict is tantamount to civil war
Julian Borger in Washington and Jonathan Steele in Amman
Monday March 20, 2006
The Guardian
A former US army general yesterday called for Donald Rumsfeld to
resign on grounds of incompetence in Iraq, hours after Ayad Allawi,
the former US-backed Iraqi prime minister, declared the country to be
in the thick of a civil war that could soon "reach the point of no
return".
Three years after Iraq was invaded, statistics published yesterday
show that the frequency of insurgent bombings and group killings is
growing, but both Mr Rumsfeld, the defence secretary, and George Bush
have vowed to fight on.
"Turning our backs on postwar Iraq today would be the modern
equivalent of handing postwar Germany back to the Nazis," the defence
secretary wrote in a Washington Post commentary, as the administration
tried to quell growing concern that the conflict was unravelling
beyond Washington's control.
President Bush made a brief appearance on the White House lawn to say
he was "encouraged" by progress on forming a unity government in Iraq.
But he had no other good news to mark three years of a war in which
more than 2,300 Americans have died, and which has so far cost $500bn.
The US commander in Iraq, General George Casey, said that the troop
withdrawals he had forecast for this spring or summer might have to
wait until the end of the year or even 2007.
And Paul Eaton, a former American army general in charge of training
Iraqi forces until 2004, marked the anniversary with a furious attack
on Mr Rumsfeld, saying he was "not competent to lead our armed
forces".
In London, Mr Allawi told BBC 2's Sunday AM programme:
"We are losing each day, as an average, 50 to 60 people throughout the
country, if not more. If this is not civil war, then God knows what
civil war is."
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Harry
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