The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Just Doesn't Get It.

[Clarkie1]

Top general defends Rumsfeld
Retired brass has called for the defense secretary's resignation
Tuesday, April 11, 2006; Posted: 6:02 p.m. EDT (22:02 GMT)

(CNN) -- The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff defended Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld from new criticism by former Pentagon brass Tuesday, telling reporters that "nobody works harder than he does. "He does his homework. He works weekends. He works nights," Gen. Peter Pace said. "People can question my judgment or his judgment, but they should never question the dedication, the patriotism and the work ethic of Secretary Rumsfeld."

<snip>

In the past month, three former generals have accused Rumsfeld of bungling the occupation of Iraq by refusing to commit enough troops to secure the country after taking Baghdad. In a Time magazine essay published this week, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold said the war plan was "fundamentally flawed," and many senior officers "acted timidly when their voices urgently needed to be heard."

"When they knew the plan was flawed, saw intelligence distorted to justify a rationale for war, or witnessed arrogant micromanagement that at times crippled the military's effectiveness, many leaders who wore the uniform chose inaction," wrote Newbold, who was the operations chief for the Joint Chiefs of Staff before retiring.

Another retired Marine general, former U.S. Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, has called for Rumsfeld to resign over his management of the war. And in a New York Times op-ed piece in March, former Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton called Rumsfeld "incompetent."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/04/11/rumsfeld.iraq/index.html

LOL! "Nobody works harder than he does!" That seems to be this whole administration's defence: "It's HARD WORK!" Well, guess what, the generals aren't saying he doesn't stay up late, they are saying he failed his duty (which involves more than simply "hard work").

And of course, one general was calling for Rummy to do the patriotic thing and resign long before now:

MEET THE PRESS
GUESTS: Sen. John Warner, (R-Va.), Chairman, Armed Services Committee, Sen. Carl Levin, (D-Mich.), Ranking Member, Armed Services Committee, Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-S.C.), Armed Services Committee, Gen. Wesley Clark (Retired), Fmr. NATO Supreme Allied Commander - Europe, James Carville, Democratic Strategist, Mary Matalin, Republican Strategist
Meet the Press (NBC News) - Sunday, May 9, 2004

General Clark, do you think Secretary Rumsfeld should resign?

GEN. CLARK: Well, I think there's really two issues on this. One is his effectiveness and he said he would resign if he felt he couldn't be effective. But I think it's really a question of the credibility of the U.S. mission and how the United States is perceived in the world. I don't think his effectiveness has been compromised. I think he can still give orders; I think people will still take them. There's no issue with that. The real question is: "How is the United States perceived and how seriously are we perceived to be taking this issue?"

I think it would be very patriotic if Secretary Rumsfeld resigned. But I do think that the issue goes beyond the secretary of defense. I don't think we should indict the men and women in the armed forces. I think 99.9 percent of them are doing a great job over there and I hope the American people will support them. I certainly do. But I do think that when something like this happens that the prima facia notion of this is this goes right to the top. What did the president know? What was the atmosphere that the president created? How hard was he pushing?

We know there was a lot of pressure to get intelligence information from these interrogations. And the Pentagon was the action agency on this working with the Central Intelligence Agency in crafting the rules. But the atmosphere in which the Geneva Conventions were more or less set to one side, apparently, would have come from the top.

[acmavm]

1. You don't think they'd have a Chairman who has any sense, decency,

dignity or brains do you? Because if he did, he wouldn't be working for these bunch of crackpots.

[katty]

2. Pace is an insider, ass kisser, he's being paid very well

for his complicity.

[0007]

17. When was his last promotion? Rumsfeld fired a lot of Generals

before he got a real "Yes Man"

[ncteechur]

3. Working hard doesn't equate to working correctly!!

[saltpoint]

4. Pace is the smiley-faced banker field rep out to talk to Farmer Jones

about why they're foreclosing his farm.

I've never questioned Don Rumsfeld's work ethic. The Devil is known to work nights often.

[Vickers]

20. "The Devil is known to work nights often."

*Ding!* *Ding!*

That is the perfect answer to this "but he works so hard!" nonsensical smokescreen.

[saltpoint]

22. Hi, Vickers. It didn't seem like that much of a reach when the OP

mentioned Rumsfeld to leap straight to the Devil himself.

In fact... have they ever been seen together.....?




:hi:

:thumbsup:

[EST]

5. Nobody's questioning his work ethic

I am questioning his sanity and judgment.

[napi21]

6. If he doesn't support Rummy, he would have to resign.

I heard this again today, although I can't remember where. Any senior member of the military who cannot support the actions of his bosses would have no choice but to resign before voicing his opinion.

[pretzel4gore]

7. they hanged general keitel....

and bush has nukes, unlike adolph, which makes the unwritten code of civilized behavior even more important for military men.....nuremberg said there's no excuse for operating on a depraved moral code:
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERkeitel.htm

[Sparkly]

8. "He works weekends. He works nights."

Maybe somebody should stop him!!! ("Go home and get some rest -- before you create any more disasters.")

By the way, if he works so hard and "does his homework," why is it that everytime somebody asks him a question about a brief, report, etc., he says, "I haven't seen that?"

(Even when they read something to him, as happened again today, he says, "I haven't read that." Well, the guy just read it TO you!! Answer the question!!! Drives me up the wall!)

[IndianaGreen]

14. Maybe Rummy is doing meth

and he is going 24/7 on a psychotic trip to nowhere.

[Schema Thing]

9. OK, fine, the best and the brightest are openly question your judgement

[existentialist]

10. contrariwise, I remember a story about

when someone tried to get Lincoln to fire Grant because he was an alcoholic. Lincoln, already aware that Grant drank, sometimes to excess, and also aware that despite that Grant was one of the few competent generals leading the Union army, replied that he guessed he would have to send more alcohol to the rest of his generals.

One can indeed work really hard, and still be an incompetent bully and ass-kisser.

And Rumsfeld proves the point.

[Sparkly]

12. Indeed

When sycophants continue to complain that Clinton got a BJ, I say I'd happily pay someone to give one to Chimpy if it's make him half as smart as Clinton.

[Fozzledick]

18. I believe what Lincoln actually said

(after contrasting Grant's victories with his other generals' inaction) was that he should find out what brand of whiskey Grant drank and send a case of it to each of his other generals.:toast:

[existentialist]

21. That sounds better

I wasn't quoting, just relaying that story as I remembered it.

[madmark]

11. when did it become the role of the joint chiefs to defend the civilian

leadership? And when did staying up late and working long hours trump sound judgment and effective leadership? Long hours alone does not make you competent.

Ironically, I like Rumsfelds concept of a leaner faster military. However this model is incompatible with wars of conquest of and occupation. If you lose the wars of aggression and occupations Rumsfelds stategic philosophy would be sound; and you would think we would be the first one to notice this.

[Tom Rinaldo]

13. I reserve judgment

It all depends on what this guy is doing behind the scenes to advance sanity, and I don't have any sense of where he stands. It may have been "requested" that he defend the DoD, open public dissension against Civilian leadership is not tolerated from acting Officers, so those currently serving can not question the judgment of Rumsfeld in public.

The support this guy gave Rumsfeld was very vague.

[Clarkie1]

15. You are correct of course he cannot openly criticize his superior.

Unless he resigns.

If I were him, I would.

[caligirl]

16. Bush brown noser.

[GCP]

19. Actually I think he does get it

"People can question my judgment or his judgment, but they should never question the dedication, the patriotism and the work ethic of Secretary Rumsfeld."

He's separating out judgement from dedication, work ethic etc.

He should still resign, however, if he's questioning Dummy's judgement and competency.