Six against Rumsfeld - Rumsfeld wins

The talk over the weekend was all about SecDef Rumsfeld. Sunday morning TV was a buzz with the topic. These six retired generals have been hailed by the media as the only military men that really know what they are doing. Of course facts do not support that. Let’s look at the arguments.

Rumsfeld doesn’t take military advice. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Pete Pace disagrees. In fact, Gen Pace has gone record stating that this SecDef has made unprecedented efforts to get military input. What the six malcontent generals are really complaining about is that Rumsfeld didn’t accept “their” advice - even though in the case of the four recently retired Army generals they apparently lacked the courage to offer their “best military judgments” while on active duty.

In the case of Marine three star General Newbold, he has admitted that didn’t speak his mind forcibly enough and apparently only feels comfortable taking on the SecDef from the safety of a TV studio or OpEd piece instead of face to face. The sixth guy Marine Gen. Zinni attacks Rumsfeld in an effort to hawk a new book.

Six guys from a class of thousands speak out against the SecDef and the MSM plays it as if the military has laid down its arms and refuses to take orders from its civilian masters until there is a change in the Pentagon.

One of these tough guys actually called Rumsfeld a “bully”. Wow, what are they going to accuse Rumsfeld of next? “He gave us wedgies when we disagreed with him.” How much good are these guys if they can be “bullied” by a 60 something year old man from doing their duty?

They call Rumsfeld arrogant. This is really the pot calling the kettle black isn’t it? Here are six retired guys five of whom were unwilling to speak up while they were in the room trying to mollify their consciences by calling for the ouster of the civilian head of the department that they once served. That is arrogance. Besides, one man’s arrogance is another’s élan. I suspect anyone in power needs a degree of self-assurance and bravado or he’d be crippled by indecision. That self-assuredness and bravado could easily be taken as arrogance.