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Duty, honor, Rummy(St. Louis Post-Dispatch (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) The following editorial appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on Monday, April 17: X X X On Sept. 30, 2003, as post-war Iraq was descending into chaos, Jim Lehrer of the ``PBS NewsHour'' asked retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni whether "heads should roll" at the Pentagon. Gen. Zinni replied: "Absolutely. Any time we lose lives, any time we have miscalculated, any time we have to go back to the American people and ask for more treasure, more sacrifice and it was not calculated and it should have been, then somebody should be held responsible. I grew up for 39 years in an institution, the United States Marine Corps and the United States military that hold people accountable. The first lesson I ever learned is if you are in charge, you are responsible." Gen. Zinni has been making the same argument ever since. Of late, five other retired general officers, another from the Marines and four from the Army, have joined the chorus. It is not unusual for retired officers to criticize military planning. It is, however, unprecedented for so many to be publicly calling for the resignation of their civilian ex-boss, in this case Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. These are not what the late Col. David H. Hackworth used to call "perfumed Pentagon princes" either. Nor are they, as President George W. Bush snidely said Friday in defending Rumsfeld, merely "two or three or four retired people." Gen. Zinni headed the U.S. Central Command and was a special envoy to the Middle East. Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr. commanded the 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq. Maj. Gen. John Batiste led the First Infantry Division there. Maj. Gen. John Riggs won a Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism in Vietnam and later headed the Army's transformation efforts. Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton was in charge of training Iraqi security forces. Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold was chief of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Aside from their distinguished military careers, what they have in common is the belief that leaders must be accountable. All of them were on active duty in the 1990s, when Gen. Hugh Shelton, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs, sent every general officer in the military a copy of a book called "Dereliction of Duty" and ordered them to read it. "Dereliction of Duty" began as a doctoral dissertation written in 1997 by a bright young Army officer named H.R. McMaster. It is a study of the failures of senior military officers to speak their minds in the early years of the Vietnam War. Gen. Shelton and his boss, then-Defense Secretary William Cohen, told their officers not to repeat those mistakes. (Ironically, Col. McMaster now commands the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment and was responsible for the counter-insurgency program in Tal Afar that Bush cites as evidence that U.S. strategy in Iraq is viable.) The military's officer corps, both active and retired, is conflicted; their code calls for them to obey orders of civilian commanders. But it also says that accountability is the highest burden of leadership. Does their allegiance to duty, honor and country necessarily include Donald Rumsfeld? No it does not. These men are warriors and patriots. Attention should be paid. ___ (c) 2006, St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Visit the Post-Dispatch on the World Wide Web at http://www.stltoday.com Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services. _____ ARCHIVE CARICATURE on KRT Direct (from KRT Faces in the News Library, 202-383-6064): Rumsfeld For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. |