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2006-03-20 Home Front: Politix
Former General Eaton sez Rumsfeld should resign
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Posted by Dan Darling 2006-03-20 05:38|| || Front Page|| [1 views since 2007-05-07]  Top

#1 Technically, retired Generals can be recalled to active duty at any time. Wonder how Gen. Eaton would take it if he found himself in front of Secty Rumsfeld after a briefing from the JAG on Art. 88. Ouchie.
Posted by Whuper Sninesing9169 2006-03-20 07:07||   2006-03-20 07:07|| Front Page Top

#2 But is Eaton a 'former' general, or a 'retired' one?
Posted by Glenmore">Glenmore  2006-03-20 07:13||   2006-03-20 07:13|| Front Page Top

#3 ex-, not former, not retired. ex.

As Allawi is to be soon. It's amazing that as he seems to have lost the election he has begun to parrot the donk line. Maybe he'll start being a regular on the Sunday morning talk shows.
Posted by Nimble Spemble 2006-03-20 07:18||   2006-03-20 07:18|| Front Page Top

#4 The war may not be lost quite yet. Just more drivel from the guardian.
Posted by bigjim-ky 2006-03-20 08:34||   2006-03-20 08:34|| Front Page Top

#5 I think it's highly likely that most of these former CIA employees, former Generals, former whatevers were once promised juicy slots somewhere in the bureaucracy of the Gore and Kerry administrations-that-never-were.

*shudder*
Posted by Spugum Sherens5365 2006-03-20 10:45||   2006-03-20 10:45|| Front Page Top

#6 Anyone catch the response from General Casey on the talk shows when presented with the Allawi statement?

Russert cited former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi as having declared that there was a civil war in Iraq. Did General Casey agree? The general said that since Allawi has "been out of the country for a while," they haven't had a chance to speak, but he doesn't think Allawi is correct. He doesn't think we are in a civil war, and he doesn't think one is imminent or inevitable. (Hint, hint, I'm here in country, he's elsewhere.)
Posted by Sherry 2006-03-20 10:59||   2006-03-20 10:59|| Front Page Top

#7 They'll find this guy strangled next week sometime...
Posted by mojo">mojo  2006-03-20 14:06||   2006-03-20 14:06|| Front Page Top

#8 Very odd, in this story here, he's called "the father of the Iraqi army".

BAGHDAD, Iraq, June 14, 2004 — Less than a year ago an unassuming man from Weatherford, Okla., arrived in this country to guide an organization that didn’t even exist – to build an army that wasn’t there. There was no plan, no force, and only slight guidance.

And 363 days later – despite a host of staggering setbacks and difficulties with logistics, contractors, funding, cultural differences and a plan that changed in scope, size and overall delivery – Iraq’s armed forces and civil security forces total more than 230,000 people. In only a matter of months, the army will consist of a 27-battalion, nine-brigade, three-division army and air force, navy, coastal defense force, civil defense corps, police service, facilities protection service, border police force, customs police force, immigration police force, national security police force and a diplomatic protection service officers force.

“There’s nothing that could have prepared me for what I’ve encountered here – but a number of things have happened to me in my career that have proven helpful,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, the former Office of Security Transition Commanding General.


I think his beef with Rumsfeld is not so much about the war in Iraq, but Rumsfeld's reorganization and transformation of the Army.

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton, who ran Iraqi military training from 2003 to 2004, describes the hiring of civilians to do jobs previously done by the military as a "shell game" created by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to keep the "force strength static on paper." In an op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, Eaton wrote, "This tactic may help for a bit, but it will likely fall apart in the next budget cycle with those positions swiftly eliminated."
Posted by Steve">Steve  2006-03-20 14:29||   2006-03-20 14:29|| Front Page Top

#9 More from Eaton:
In today's NYT retired Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton has called for Bush to accept Rumsfeld's resignation which he offered. Twice. Eaton says Rumsfeld is not competent strategically, operationally, and tactically and is more than anyone else, responsible for the chaos in Iraq. He says he sees a growing reluctance of experienced military and civilians to challenge his leadership. He says they are intimidated by Rumfeld because of the way he retaliates by undercutting them.

The Army finds itself severely undermanned-cut to 10 active divisions but asked by the administration to support a foreign policy that requires at least 12-14. Eaton says that the Pentagon is at the mercy of Rumsfeld's ego, his unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower. Rumsfeld fails to understand the nature of protracted counterinsurgency warfare and the demands it places on the ground forces, his only call is for 1,500 Special Operations forces.

Rumsfeld ignored the Powell Doctrine, which led to looting and the general destruction of the infrastructure. Too few troops, then, according to J. Paul Bremer, the money that was to go for things like hospital building, providing police uniforms, money to pay for Iraqi firms to build barracks, was withheld. The contracts for purchasing military equipment for the new Iraqi army were rewritten in DC.

Eaton says Rumsfeld demand more than loyalty, he demands fealty. And he has hired men who give it. The new Army Sec. Francis Harvey, who when faced with the compelling need to increase the size of the service, refused, instead he relied on a shell game of hiring civilians to do jobs previously done by soldiers. He kept the force strength static-on paper. Eaton says that it will work for a while but it will all fall apart in the next budget cycle.

What to do? He says first of all, Rumsfeld should resign. Then Congress, with the power of the purse, should call upon our generals, colonels, captains and sergeants to testify frequently. Ask them their opinions and needs. Ask them publicly if they need more men. Then it will be made clear to all what they need.
Last, he says that the most important of the Pentagon's judges are it's subordinates. A lesson, he says, Rumsfeld seems incapable of learning.


I guess Rummy didn't listen to poor Paul.
Posted by Steve">Steve  2006-03-20 14:39||   2006-03-20 14:39|| Front Page Top

#10 Does the name MacArthur ring a bell General?

He's not an 'ex'. He's retired and on the retired rolls, subject to recall. The only way you become an 'ex' is to be stripped of your commission, which by the way takes an act by the service secretary. Usually after a courts martial or less than honorable discharge for cause.
Posted by Thith Angock4148 2006-03-20 15:21||   2006-03-20 15:21|| Front Page Top

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