AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
WASHINGTON: Two retired army generals and a retired Marine colonel demanded Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resign, accusing him of incompetence, arrogance and determination to wage war in Iraq on the cheap.
Speaking separately, Rumsfeld insisted he had no plans to quit.
“I'm not,” Rumsfeld replied tersely when asked by a journalist if he was considering resigning.
Critics of the Pentagon chief have called for Rumsfeld's resignation over his management of the US military operation in Iraq, which has cost the lives of more than 2,600 US soldiers.
In April, Rumsfeld was confronted by retired generals who blamed him for errors committed in the war on Iraq and called for his dismissal. But President George W. Bush stood by his defense chief.
Two years ago, during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Rumsfeld offered to resign but Bush refused to accept it.
“Donald Rumsfeld is not a competent wartime leader,” said retired major general John Batiste, a former commander of the First Infantry Division in Iraq, speaking in Congress on Monday at the Senate Democratic Policy Committee. “He knows everything, except how to win.”
Rumsfeld's “dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American servicemen and women, our allies, and the good people of Iraq,” said Batiste, a mere 10 months into his retirement.
“He does not comprehend the human dimension of warfare,” charged Batiste. “What should have been a deliberate victory is now an uncertain and protracted challenge.”
Retired major general Paul Eaton, until January in charge of training Iraqi troops, described Rumsfeld as “a man who has proven himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically,” and a man of “extraordinary arrogance” who has “failed to adapt to the current situation. He has tried and continues to fight this war on the cheap.”
Retired Marine colonel Thomas Hammes blasted the Bush administration for failing to “maintain or replace the equipment necessary for the units in the United States to be ready for other potential operations.”
“The critical issue is leadership,” he said. Rumsfeld “has not acknowledged the numerous serious mistakes made to date,” therefore, “I do not believe it is possible for him to provide the leadership necessary to succeed in Iraq.”
Rumsfeld is to depart later Monday for Montenegro, Albania and Slovenia, where he will meet NATO defense ministers mainly about Afghanistan.
