With 3 weeks to go and national survival at stake, I'm in no mood to be fair-but General Shalikashvili and many other senior officers were absolutely correct about what would be required to occupy and pacify Iraq.
That Rummy disagreed with them is not so bad, and that he insisted on his right to make the call was entirely his prerogative.
But when you engage in shouting matches in your office, and publically humiliate flag-rank officers, and insist that anyone who disagrees with you is a coward or subscribes to "old thinking" - then, you had damned well better be proven right in every little detail of what you say, or the people who work for you will never, never trust you again.
I'm in the minority, but I say we'll have a new SecDef in Term II.
General Shalikashvili, who is allegedly endorsing Kerry, was the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Klintoon.
It's General Eric K. Shinseki who was Army Chief of Staff under Klinton & Bush that Kerry lies about Rummy (Bush) firing and/or retiring early. It's also Shinseki who said we'd need several hundred thousand troops in post war Iraq.
An aside, for what it's worth Rummy was 100% correct in ignoring Shinseki. He was a Willard suck-up, was promoted solely due to affirmative action, and has the fastest promotion time-line from Major General (2 stars) to General (4 stars) in the history of the modern US Army - all under Klintoon. And if anything, Rummy (Bush) SHOULD have fired him on Jan 22nd, 2001!
And thanks to Shinseki, we have the REMF's now wearing the Ranger's Black Beret to make them 'feel good', the boondoggle (IMO) called the Stryker, co-ed basic training and lower standards, and frigging touchy-feely sensitivity training!
~~Shinseki rant off~~