The Revolt of the Leftist American Generals

This from TIA:

I think it was Abraham Lincoln who wrote to an overly cautious general (I can't remember whether it was Meade or McClellan), asking "If you are not using my army, do you mind if I borrow it?" This kind of disagreement seems to be part of what is behind the attacks on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld by a cabal of retired generals.

Note that most of the generals calling for Rumsfeld's resignation opposed the Iraq War to begin with. They do not want Rumsfeld to resign so that his replacement can prosecute the war more effectively. They have been in Washington too long not to know that Rumsfeld's departure would be interpreted as an admission of defeat in Iraq, and as John Podhoretz points out, it would mean the collapse of Bush's presidency.

This whole controversy reminds me of a trend I have seen among some military leaders and allegedly pro-military congressmen (like Jack Murtha). They are all in favor of spending billions of dollars on an enormous military apparatus—but the moment a president tries to use that apparatus for anything bigger than a tiny Clinton-esque humanitarian mission, they scream that it is "overstretched" and "broken."

Adding to this is the cause cited by Rumsfeld himself, which Jack Wakeland recently explained to me. The Cold War Pentagon had a giant, oversized military bureaucracy—one that was deliberately oversized. In case of war with the Soviets, the plan was that millions of draftees could be pumped into this giant management structure, allowing a rapid mobilization of a much larger army.

Donald Rumsfeld has cut that bureaucracy to reflect the post-Cold-War reality of a permanently smaller, all-volunteer military—and in doing so, he has challenged a lot of cherished assumptions and robbed a lot of generals of their fiefdoms. This is the generals' revenge for those policies.

"Rumsfeld Says Foes Fear Change,"

Rowan Scarborough

Washington Times

April 19 2006

Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that retired generals' calls for his resignation are rooted in opposition to his push to streamline and restructure the Army….

None of the four retired Army generals have mentioned Army transformation as the reason. Instead, they have criticized Mr. Rumsfeld's management style and what they considered deeply flawed planning for Iraq, after dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled….

Yet, a number of retired officers say privately that Mr. Rumsfeld is correct and that the resignation calls are rooted in how he has treated the Army during sweeping transformation. They also complain that the Army has too few soldiers to fight wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, in addition to keeping other global commitments. Mr. Rumsfeld has resisted any permanent increase in what is called "end strength," but he has authorized a temporary buildup of 30,000 soldiers….

Asked about resignation calls yesterday, Mr. Rumsfeld delivered a history lesson on what a Bush-ordered transformation has done for the Army and how some generals, retired and active, do not like it…. The defense secretary, Mr. Rumsfeld said, "has to make those kinds of decisions. And when you make a choice, somebody's not going to like it. It's perfectly possible to come into this department and preside and not make choices, in which case people are not unhappy, until about five years later, when they find you haven't done anything and the country isn't prepared."