4'th Retired General calls for Rumsfled's Ouster

[mburbank]

And this ones last duty was in Iraq.



Retired US Iraq General Demands Rumsfeld Resign
By Will Dunham
Reuters

Wednesday 12 April 2006

A recently retired two-star general who just a year ago commanded a U.S. Army division in Iraq on Wednesday joined a small but growing list of former senior officers to call on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

"I believe we need a fresh start in the Pentagon. We need a leader who understands teamwork, a leader who knows how to build teams, a leader that does it without intimidation," Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the Germany-based 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, said in an interview on CNN.

In recent weeks, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni all spoke out against Rumsfeld. This comes as opinion polls show eroding public support for the 3-year-old war in which about 2,360 U.S. troops have died.

"You know, it speaks volumes that guys like me are speaking out from retirement about the leadership climate in the Department of Defense," Batiste said.

[ziggytrix]

Does it really speak volumes though? I mean he is a retired general. Which basically means he's a quitter. And of course a quitter isn't gonna like a strong, determined leader like ol' Rummy. Am I right, or am I right?

[KevinTheOmnivore]

We should get Wesley Clark in there. He'd pull all of the troops back and bomb Iraq from far away until Iraq democratized.

[mburbank]

That plan sounds as good as the one we currently have. It's sort of like good old fashiond 'bomb them back to the stone age', but substitute the word democracy for stoneage and get rid of the word 'back'.

I'm not pro Batiste. I'm just anti Rummsfeld. Batiste is also of the 'failure is not an option' approach, and I still have no idea what that means as either a strategy or a sentence. He just thinks we should move the country to a world war II type footing, institute a draft, recind all tax cuts and dig in.

But, he thinks that's what you'd need to do to have any hope of winning, and I agree, although as you all know that's not what I want.

And he thinks it's immoral to expect the volunteer army and their fmilies to do %100 percent of the sacrificing, and I agree there, too.

And he thinks Rummy is an incompetant son of a bitch, and I agreee with that, too.