Another general joins ranks opposing Rumsfeld (number 6)

CNN ^ | April 13 2006

[jmc1969]

The commander who led the elite 82nd Airborne Division during its mission in Iraq has joined the chorus of retired generals calling on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to leave the Pentagon.

"I really believe that we need a new secretary of defense because Secretary Rumsfeld carries way too much baggage with him," retired Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack told CNN's Barbara Starr on Thursday.

He also suggested other changes among the top brass at the Pentagon.

"I think we need senior military leaders who understand the principles of war and apply them ruthlessly, and when the time comes, they need to call it like it is,".

"Specifically, I feel he has micromanaged the generals who are leading our forces there," Swannack said in the telephone interview.

[do the dhue]

Well, I have posts that prove I stand by Rumsfeld and my President. I still do. I am just saying that maybe some of these Generals, like the one from the 82nd, does not want to be told how to handle the war. And maybe they are telling us that our politicians are handling it. Our politicians will fail. See Vietnam. Everyone of our politicians will fail because they will all be afraid of what the French might say. My vote for Bush was for a President who doesn't care what polls say or the UN says; I voted for a President who I believed would use every piece of hardware in our arsenal to rid our threats with. I still think Bush is like that and Rumsfeld, but I think they may have to be reminded that we don't have to listen to our media.

[Lancey Howard]

"I think we need senior military leaders who understand the principles of war and apply them ruthlessly...."

If indeed we are not presently applying the principles of war "ruthlessly", then I agree - - Rummy should step down.

[NAVY84]

Amen to the conclusion. I think the meat is more in the middle though. I think some of the brass have done some learning as well.

[pollyannaish]

Well, this is certainly separating the wheat from the chaff. Those who stand up and take responsibility...and those who run to the press.

It's very interesting.

[Emmet Fitzhume]

I am with you.

A real leader would never dishonor the uniform by pandering to an anti-American attack machine like CNN or the New York Times.

As a US service member, I find it disgusting that they are behaving like this.

We are at war, and men like Donald Rumsfeld are doing the best that they can to win it.

Fools like these "generals" undermine our progress and dishearten the troops in the fight, and Al Qaeda is laughing about it all.

I will piss on the graves of these "generals" before I salute them, and I do so only because they give aid and comfort to the enemy who is sworn to kill innocent Americans.

[Lancey Howard]

Going to Iraq with far too few troops, for one.

You don't know what you are talking about.
Here is somebody who knows what he is talking about:

"If we could have gotten more troops on the ground, we would have, but we couldn't come through Turkey. We had one small hole to get through. That was up through Kuwait. And we got as many troops on the ground as fast as we could." - - LtGen Michael Delong USMC Ret.

[pollyannaish]

That's all well and good and a reasonable point.

BUT remember that most of the criticism of Rummy has been that he has been TOO ruthless...that is up until now.

Rummy's position is POLITICAL/CIVILIAN and therefore he must also take political calculations into consideration. It is possible that at this point, this is as ruthless as he can authorize without setting the administration up for worse problems.

The military always has, and always will be under civilian leadership. And as the Fox panel pointed out today on Hume's show...if you go back and read about some of the horrible things generals have said about Churchill in the like, you will realize just how tame this criticism really is.

[do the dhue]

OK

I understand that. Truman was that last bad ass. Ike and his friends ran WWII. That was wholesale keyster kickin'. Nixon did Operation Linebacker in Nam but stopped it. No wholesale keister kickin' there. We need a Truman. One who says I don't care what the world has to say, I am doing what is best for the us. I am not saying we need to turn the middle east into glass. I am saying that we should let our military take the gloves off. I even say to the Suni and the Shites, 'look, y'all been wanting to fight for a thousand years. Well guess what! Today is your lucky day. Have at it. When you are done the winners gets to fight me.' Look, since the 'civil unrest began, our soldiers are not being attacked as much. Before civil unrest about 2.something soldiers were dieing a day. Today, its like 1.1 or something like that. Can remember. In any case, I think that these people are attacking each other and they are not using their energy to attack us. Let 'um fight. We clean house when they are done.

[CWOJackson]

In the Department of Defense there are:

34 - four star generals/admirals

124 - three star generals/admirals

278 - two star generals/admirals

439 - one star generals/admirals

Throw in the U.S. Coast Guard and you have 900 generals and admirals on active duty today. This is roughly the same number of generals/admirals who were on active duty in WWII when our military was 12,000,000 strong.

Given that on any given year 15-20% of those generals/admirals will retire each year it doesn't take much figuring to realize that the number of generals calling for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign is laughable.

[thoughtomator]

Conservatives aren't allowed to criticize the handling of the war.

[SevenMinusOne]

There needs to be someone in charge of the Defense Department who is less interested in not looking bad and more interested in getting the job done.

I don't think Rummy has that in him.

You don't know the man at all then - Nor is your radar of perception all that accurate ...with all due respect.

Get the job done?? - We have fought and continue to fight the most successful unconventional war in the history of man! - What we have accomplished in the last 4 years is amazing by all intellectually honest objectionable standards.

No, It is the Old Big Green that had outlived its usefulness and SecDef Rumsfeld has helped in making the needed changes. Of course this has upset some and hurt some feelings.....but men don't run to the MSM (who they know without question at every turn is looking to run down our war efforts. They know this, yet they turn to these people to get their axe (message) out. That speaks volumes about these people.).

[do the dhue]

That is a true statement!

The General should have went to Foxnews or no one.

I didn't think of that.

He went right to where he knew the word would get out fast.

I still want to kick some keyster though! - see my other posts

[rodeocowboy]

"I think we need senior military leaders who understand the principles of war and apply them ruthlessly..."

I agree. We can't fight a civilized war with an uncivilized people. We need to get ruthless and show the rest of the world what we can do. I bet Iran would shut-the-f-up tomorrow.

[do the dhue]

That is what I am talking about.

Ghengis Khan style. His style worked back then, I say it will work today because those people are still uncivilized.

[usmcobra]

We won in Viet Nam despite LBJ's hands on approach, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

The Communists didn't even think of crossing the Border until Nixon was forced from office and they were safe from attack.

And don't think for a second that Rumsfeld doesn't know what he is doing, he retired as a Captain in the Naval Reserve in 1975 and this is the second president he has served for as Secretary of Defense.

In fact I'll go so far as to suggest that some of these generals were snot nosed 2nd lieutenants when Rumsfeld previously served as Secretary of defense.

[do the dhue]

Conservatives are aloud to say we need to drop the big one on 'um.

[Northern Alliance]

Someone made a comment about where the buck stops. It stops on W's desk. He's the one who decided that Iraq (and everyone else on the planet) wants and is ready for democracy. I don't know. I hope so, but he was and still seems to be sure of it. Nobody forsaw the insurgency. By now Iraq should have been self-sufficient in every way with lots of cash due to their oil and live happily ever after.

Rumsfeld was given the task of fighting a new kind of war, and I think he has done pretty well. Of course mistakes were made. How could they not be in light of the fact nobody predicted this therefore nobody planned for it.

Hey, Saddam had to go - that was the right decision particulary as the whole world thought he had WMD. But replacing him with democracy instead of a strong man - that was a big gamble. I supported Bush then and do now, but it may turn out he was wrong in that.

[thoughtomator]

OK, then.

We need to drop the big one on 'um.

[NAVY84]

Roger that, and I have no problem doing it that way if that is the decision of the civilian authority. Warriors like Patton must be held in check and others like Montgomery must be shoved along as required.

[JRandomFreeper]

Conservatives aren't allowed to criticize the handling of the war.

Seems like some are allowed to criticize the handling of the war... on an open forum... They just don't like the thrashing their non-logic, lame-stream media, bravo-sierra gets when they espouse it.

/johnny