EDITORIAL: Rumsfeld vs. the generals

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 4/16/6 | Editor

[SmithL]

NOBODY does dismissive better than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. When confronted with an uncomfortable truth, he has a way of brushing it off with a brusque one liner.

"Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war,'' was one of his classics.

A war gone awry has a way of encouraging a depressing view of its leadership. Rumsfeld cannot so easily dismiss the rising chorus of condemnation from retired generals who have called for his resignation. As Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs told National Public Radio last week, Rumsfeld has fostered an "atmosphere of arrogance" at the Pentagon.

The nation has paid a heavy price for Rumsfeld's arrogance, including strategic miscalculations that have contributed to the quagmire in Iraq, even if the defense secretary won't acknowledge the word. "I don't do quagmires," he once said.

[dighton]

This uproar is no more spontaneous than a Cuban demonstration.

[litehaus]

"Chorus?....Days ago, a solo, next day a duo, 4days later a Sextet?....Chorus? Yeh, sure.....In the dreams of the SFChronically sinking lefties...

[trubluolyguy]

The one time anyone in San Fransicko ever cares what a military man has to say is when he attacks a member of the Bush cabinet.

[wizardoz]

Yep. Over a thousand active and retired generals and admirals wandering around out there, and six partisan malcontents constitute an overwhelming tide of criticism. When it gets to 300, let me know.

[Thebaddog]

What war gone awry? Have you heard of any battles won by the terrorists? When was the last time you heard about major casualties suffered by the Coalition forces? As far as I am concerned, we are winning the war and the premise for the editorial is baseless.

A real problem is that Bush isn't out their feeding the media our side of the story like Clinton would have been doing. That is a major problem going into the 06 and 08 election cycles.

[driftless]

Forgot the barf advisory. The SF Barnacle is just another lying, liberal squawkbox. If Frisco fell into the ocean after an earthquake, would anybody miss it?

[george76]

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.

[zarf]

The coordination between the media, the DNC and these "spontaneous" news events is uncanny!

[JoeFromSidney]

If you want to talk about a really arrogant SecDef, consider Robert McNamara. I was on active duty while he was SecDef. He had absolutely no use for anyone in uniform. He paid more attention to his "Whiz Kids," who had never smelled gunsmoke, than to people who had faced shot and shell. He did an incredible amount of damage to the military.

[llevrok]

Note to SODUS: To quote Winston Churchill, "keep buggering on !"

[Jim_Curtis]

Normally you would be able to find dozens of retired Generals who believe a certain way, pro or con, on any issue facing the US from 1776 to present.

They pretty much are making the case that Rumsfeld is one of the most supported Defense Secretaries ever.

I wonder what would have happened years ago if the media asked retired Generals what they thought of Clinton's alliance with bin Laden against the Christian Serbs. I'll bet they would have found more than six who were vehemently opposed.

[Yardstick]

"Atmosphere of arrogance" sounds like it came out of the same round of focus-group testing as "Culture of corruption".

[Reactionary]

"The coordination between the media, the DNC and these "spontaneous" news events is uncanny!"

Just a tad. Ain't it, though?

[johnny7]

Sounds like it was written in a bath house.

[Radix]

"The nation has paid a heavy price for Rumsfeld's arrogance, including strategic miscalculations that have contributed to the quagmire in Iraq,...

I suppose that this rag has enumerated these so called miscalculations.......

Pompous asses.

[Uncle George]

Anyone know what party these Generals voted with last time ???

[Fielding]

For these armchair types: Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way!!!!

[longtermmemmory]

Rumsfeld vs "the dead enders"

[dighton]

SODUS

Acronym rejected for obvious reasons, but I’m buggered if there’s not a town of that name.