Posted on 05/29/2006 12:22:23 PM PDT by gwb43_2004
Washington: A senior American general who served as a combat commander in Iraq has accused the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, of squandering the lives of United States soldiers by ignoring military advice on how to conduct the campaign.
In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Major General John Batiste, who resigned last year after 12 months stationed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, said the Pentagon chief had caused "unnecessary deaths" by committing "strategic blunders of enormous magnitude".
(Excerpt) Read more at gulf-news.com ...
He is a candyas$ who doesn't like hard chargers who are willing to make decisions. His comments and demeanor at this time in our history is pathetic. The U.S. Army is better off with him out of service and that is the bottom line.
Not the first time this jerk has sounded off against Rummy. Must have gotten his stars under Clinton and Wesley Clarke.
Gen Batiste has no intention of keeping quiet during his retirement. Instead, the former career soldier, who resigned after commanding 22,000 troops of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, is planning a sustained public offensive aimed at driving Mr Rumsfeld from office.
The transformation of a once-loyal soldier into an outspoken rebel is a stark indicator of the growing disquiet at the heart of America's military establishment.
Gen Batiste, 53, alleges that Mr Rumsfeld not only went to war with too few troops, but then refused urgent pleas from commanders on the ground for more.
He says Mr Rumsfeld's "contemptuous, arrogant and dismissive attitude" led him to ignore military advice and hamstring ground commanders with troop shortages.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/28/wirq28.xml
In a further public relations blow for the Bush administration, a general who served as a combat commander in Iraq told The Sunday Telegraph that Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, has squandered the lives of American soldiers by ignoring military advice on how to conduct the campaign.http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/05/28/wirq28.xmlMajor Gen John Batiste, who resigned last year after 12 months stationed in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, said Mr Rumsfeld had caused "unnecessary deaths" by committing "strategic blunders of enormous magnitude".
His outspoken comments come as the US military death toll in Iraq approaches 2,500, and put him at the forefront of the chorus of six former generals who have called for Mr Rumsfeld to step down.
Gen Batiste has no intention of keeping quiet during his retirement. Instead, the former career soldier, who resigned after commanding 22,000 troops of the US Army's 1st Infantry Division, is planning a sustained public offensive aimed at driving Mr Rumsfeld from office.
The transformation of a once-loyal soldier into an outspoken rebel is a stark indicator of the growing disquiet at the heart of America's military establishment.
Gen Batiste, 53, alleges that Mr Rumsfeld not only went to war with too few troops, but then refused urgent pleas from commanders on the ground for more.
He says Mr Rumsfeld's "contemptuous, arrogant and dismissive attitude" led him to ignore military advice and hamstring ground commanders with troop shortages.
Information here http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Transcript_Retired_general_says_criticism_of_0414.html
and here http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1753266,00.html
and here http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june06/iraq_4-13.html
Note that these are not what we consider truely reputable news sources.
Great timing, Batiste!!!
Yeah, Memorial Day is a good time to tell the families of the fallen that their lives "were wasted".
Babtiste? Sounds French. Perhaps a heavy conributor to the 'Rat$?
LIAR, LIAR, LIAR. If this was the case we would have heard about it long time ago. I hope that other commanders who are serving or served in Iraq will come forcefully and crush this little bug and his lies.
PS: Servinng in a military does not immune a liar from being exposed to who he realy is. Not only he should be exposed but he should be crushed.
What do we know about Major General John Batiste? I am not assuming anything about him until I know some facts.
Yet Gen Batiste would have been in a position to know. In fact, he could have been one of the combatant commandars asking for more. The question I have is, was he?
Also, why is he lashing out now?
It's a wonder he didn't throw in insufficient uparmor, preparation for chemical warfare that didn't exist and faulty intelligence about how his troops would be received in occupation.
Sounds to me like another Wesley Clarke in the making."The transformation of a once loyal soldier into an outspoken rebel..."The msm love "rebels"when they badmouth the administration.Kind of like the msm calling John McCain a "maverick republican".
Message to all Presstitutes:
If you resign you resign your commission. You have no military retirement benefits except for same VA bennies for the time served like everyone else (different legal controlling authority), you no longer have a right to claim honors and privelages of a retired officer, wear the uniform at special events as a retiree or even wear your military awards and decorations. Honorably discharged personnel and retirees have all these and the respect of the public. If you resign you're a quiter no matter what the reason you told yourself for resigning - hear that all you Presstitutes out there a quiter.
The enemy does not need a Mata Harri or Tokyo Rose, we have enough homegrown scum to take their place.
i think we need to get him and the centcom commander in a live one-on-one interview and discuss this alleged effort on Rummy's part to deny troop increases. every single comment i've heard has been that the cdr on the ground determines troop strength, not rummy. if that's not true, according to batiste, then let's hear it. just because batiste may have himself asked for troop increases here or there doesn't mean that the centcom cdr agreed with him and went with the idea to rumsfeld.
of course, if such were the case, then batiste is looking like an idiot for not knowing how small a fry he was in the grand scheme of things. (a two-star really ain't much when it comes to determining national policy).
jveritas has a LOT of credibility here. N00b.
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