The commander of Fort Leavenworth says criticism of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld by some retired generals who have called for his ouster raises questions about balancing issues.“I would not ever want to see the military politicized,” Lt. Gen. David Petraeus said Monday night during a question-and-answer session following a speech at the University of Kansas. “And I would not want to see generals chosen on the basis of whether they’d keep their mouths shut in retirement, rather than on the basis of whether they can provide sound military advice.” Petraeus said the free speech of the retired generals should be weighed against civilian control of the military. “I am wrestling with that one,” he said.
Petraeus spent 2Å“ years in Iraq as a top Army commander. He led the 101st Airborne Division, which had a key role in the invasion, and later was put in charge of training and equipping Iraqi military forces. After completing that assignment in September, he was sent to Fort Leavenworth as commander of the post and its Combined Arms Center.
He spoke Monday before an overflow crowd at the university’s Dole Institute of Politics. Reacting to recent criticism of Rumsfeld from a handful of retired generals, President Bush has said the defense secretary has his “full support.” Richard Myers, the retired Air Force general who headed the Joint Chiefs of Staff until the fall, has denied assertions that Rumsfeld intimidated top commanders into silence while the invasion of Iraq was being planned. Critics complain the U.S. should have committed more troops to the effort and that the strength of the Iraqi insurgency was underestimated.
“I don’t know what happened in 2002 and 2003,” Petraeus said of the planning period before the invasion. “I was not at that level, obviously, so I don’t know about the numbers.” Petraeus offered a list of observations about soldiering from his time in Iraq, with the broad themes that counterinsurgency efforts are improved when soldiers understand the language and culture of a nation, when they can help develop effective local leaders and when they don’t make more enemies than they take off the streets. He said those lessons helped reopen the University of Mosul and resulted in widespread improvements to the Iraqi infrastructure.
During the questioning, Petraeus conceded that the U.S. military should have remembered some lessons from the Vietnam War. “We had learned lessons before, and we had forgotten some of those lessons,” he said. “We’re certainly going to endeavor this time not to let history repeat itself in that regard.”