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Ear to the Ground

Third Retired General Wants Rumsfeld Out

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Posted on Apr 11, 2006

The military’s former top operations officer expresses regret that he did not more closely question the rationale for invading Iraqi, and urges active-duty officers to speak out.


N.Y. Times:

Third Retired General Wants Rumsfeld Out
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, April 9—The three-star Marine Corps general who was the military’s top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq expressed regret, in an essay published Sunday, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the nation to war. He also urged active-duty officers to speak out now if they had doubts about the war.

Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, who retired in late 2002, also called for replacing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and “many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach.” He is the third retired senior officer in recent weeks to demand that Mr. Rumsfeld step down.

In the essay, in this week’s issue of Time magazine, General Newbold wrote, “I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat—Al Qaeda.”

The decision to invade Iraq, he wrote, “was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions—or bury the results.”

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By candide, April 14, 2006 at 8:20 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

These generals remind me of Prussian generals who privately opposed Hitler but publicly did all his murderous work.

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By Shag, April 12, 2006 at 8:39 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

It’s just too damned bad they were so worried about their careers and didn’t speak out earlier. It would have saved a lot of young lives.

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By eyeroll, April 12, 2006 at 12:32 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

Typical. People who could have said something, done something, did nothing when it might have mattered. Only after they retire/quit, and it no longer matters, do they develop consciences about what they abetted.

I have bad news for these guys: your soul is already gone. It’s too late, you can’t get it back. Regrets mean nothing. Suffer with the fact that you made the world a more miserable place.

People like this make me wish there really were a Hell.

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By Stephen K., April 11, 2006 at 9:41 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Plato said that only the dead have seen the end of war.  War is unfortunate but inevitable and the only control we have is choosing when to strike. The aggressive policy taken by the administration was obviously a mistake, keeping us from the real problem: al-Quaida.

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By Peter Hinds, April 11, 2006 at 1:30 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

If the agitators for war were the first victims, we could rid the world of the plague of war.

              Peter Hinds

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