High-Ranking General Slams Rumsfeld

Posted on Oct 5, 2006

spiegel.de

A high-ranking active duty general has endorsed Bob Woodward’s characterization of criticisms the general made of the Bush administration, referring to the Iraq war as a “debacle” and saying: “The Joint Chiefs have been systematically emasculated by Rumsfeld.”

Washington Post:

One of the highest-ranking generals in the U.S. military yesterday stood by views attributed to him in a controversial new book about the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq but said it was important to understand the context in which those views were expressed.

Marine Gen. James L. Jones, the U.S. commander for Europe, is quoted in “State of Denial,” by The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward, as believing that the war in Iraq is a “debacle” and that “The Joint Chiefs have been systematically emasculated by Rumsfeld.” As Marine commandant, the post he held before moving to Europe, Jones was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The book also quotes Jones as delivering a warning about working with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to Marine Gen. Peter Pace, who was about to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “You should not be the parrot on the secretary’s shoulder,” Jones reportedly told Pace.

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