Too Late, the Generals

April 14th. 2006
Sent to but not published in the New York Times

Secretary Rumsfeld didn't practice groupthink; he didn't even want to hear what his General Officers wanted to say. It is time for him to go.

But, what can we say about these retired Generals who are now coming out of the shadows to say that the war in Iraq was and is being mishandled? Where were they before the war when General Shinseki told his superiors that it would take several hundred thousand troops to pacify Iraq once the war was over? That courageous stand resulted in Shinseki's career being over.

Where were they just two years ago when retired General Zinni told as that "everyone knew" that General Shinseki was correct in his assessment? Zinni waited until he retired before criticizing the Secretary, these new General-critics have also waited until their retirement.

These men put their careers ahead of their responsibility for the troops who served them and trusted them. A concerted "No!" early on to Rumsfeld's inept tactics might have changed the course of the war -- many lives might have been saved, and many of those with terrible injuries might be hale and hearty today.

How terrible.