Rumsfeld Rebuked by Generals

In the April 13, 2006 Washington Post, staff writer Thomas Ricks reported that the
retired commander of key forces in Iraq, Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-2005, called yesterday for Donald H. Rumsfeld to step down, joining several other former top military commanders (Generals Zinni, Swannack, Eaton, Riggs and Newbold) who have harshly criticized the defense secretary's authoritarian style for making the military's job more difficult.

Batiste's comments resonate especially within the Army: It is widely known that he was offered a promotion to three-star rank to return to Iraq and be the No. 2 U.S. military officer there but he declined because he no longer wished to serve under Rumsfeld. Also, before going to Iraq, he worked at the highest level of the Pentagon, serving as the senior military assistant to Paul D. Wolfowitz, then the deputy secretary of defense.

Batiste said he believes that the administration's handling of the Iraq war has violated fundamental military principles, such as unity of command and unity of effort. In other interviews, Batiste has said he thinks the violation of another military principle -- ensuring there are enough forces -- helped create the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal by putting too much responsibility on incompetent officers and under trained troops.

Last month, another top officer who served in Iraq, retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times in which he called Rumsfeld "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically." Eaton, who oversaw the training of Iraqi army troops in 2003-2004, said that "Mr. Rumsfeld must step down."

Another retired officer, Army Maj. Gen. John Riggs, said he believes that his peer group is "a pretty closemouthed bunch" but that, even so, his sense is "everyone pretty much thinks Rumsfeld and the bunch around him should be cleared out." He emphatically agrees, Riggs said, explaining that he believes Rumsfeld and his advisers have "made fools of themselves, and totally underestimated what would be needed for a sustained conflict."