[piasa]

Weren't he and the President taking the Generals' lead on how many troops would be committed?

Get with the lib program. Don't you know that the SecDef is supposed to disregard the word of the men on the ground and their officers and instead only heed the advice of sensitive retired liberal or LaRouchie armchair generals?

[CWOJackson]

Actually, you need to keep the comments of these generals in perspective. 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.

Of those 900 15-20% of them will retire every year. Now, run that number out for the six years that Secretary Rumsfeld has been in his position and these five or six disgruntled generals have about as much significance as a Constitution Party Candidate for President...and that isn't even counting all the generals and admirals that retired before Secretary Rumsfeld took over.