Sixth General Calls for Rumseld’s Ouster

Read the New York Times’ take on the growing list. But check out CNN’s “Five reasons why Rumsfeld won’t leave easily.” Also, Bush is standing firmly with his war architect.

Update: Rep. Harold Ford calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation.

NY Times:

More Retired Generals Call for Rumsfeld’s Resignation
By DAVID S. CLOUD and ERIC SCHMITT

WASHINGTON, April 13—The widening circle of retired generals who have stepped forward to call for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld’s resignation is shaping up as an unusual outcry that could pose a significant challenge to Mr. Rumsfeld’s leadership, current and former generals said on Thursday.

Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., who led troops on the ground in Iraq as recently as 2004 as the commander of the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, on Thursday became the fifth retired senior general in recent days to call publicly for Mr. Rumsfeld’s ouster. Also Thursday, another retired Army general, Maj. Gen. John Riggs, joined in the fray.

“We need to continue to fight the global war on terror and keep it off our shores,” General Swannack said in a telephone interview. “But I do not believe Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person to fight that war based on his absolute failures in managing the war against Saddam in Iraq.”

Link

From nytimes.com

The following recently retired military generals have called for the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld: Top, from left, Major Gen. Paul D. Eaton, Gen. Anthony C. Zinni, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold; above, Major Gen. John Batiste, Major Gen. John Riggs and Major Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr.