Posted on 04/17/2006 5:48:39 AM PDT by .cnI redruM
No, Zinnie was the officer who decided that Yemen was a safe port for our ships. Of course, that was right before the Cole bombing. The guy really doesn't have good judgement and was a failure at every job he was given after the Cole.
So says you.
It may be years before we know what happened at the time of their exit. I stand by my original words, "in effect."
1) No it's not.
2) Offering to fall on your sword and having your offer rejected is not quitting.
Rumsfeld needs to be replaced.
No, he doesn't. But keep telling us how he should. Maybe the President will sacrifice the GWOT to appease your concerns. :-D
There is a famous case of a general under LBJ who was going to resign and tell the press how badly the Viet Nam War was being run. He did not and later regretted it. I do not know the man's name.
People turn against those who do the right thing. We are more comfortable with letting things go.
These generals are chickens and traitors. They should not be doing this during a war.
Zinni was a Marine general.
I find the headline disturbing and dumb. A General - like every soldier - isn´t serving a special DefSec but his country.
If a General/Private votes Republican and the Democrats win, shall he resign? No, he shall do his duty for his nation!
If a General/Private votes Democratic and the Republicans win, shall he resign? No, he shall do his duty for his nation!
That´s democratic - we accept the outcome of elections. That doesn´t ban a state employee to express his disapproval with politicians or orders (given he obeys the special regulations for that, as it was done in the mentioned case).
If these objections had been voiced through the chain of command, as you suggest, do you think for one minute that Seymore Hirsch's moles in the Pentagon would not have had him screaming this from the rooftops?
Sheeeesh!
Did Patton resign, even though he had more than his share of beefs with Ike and FDR?
Nope! He go murdered instead.
I think it's obvious why the generals made no complaints four years ago.
Because they weren't working a book project, consulting to the mainstream media, or trying to get a Democrat nomination back then!
go = got
"What they're complaining about took place 3 or 4 years ago...
...Why didn't they complain then???"
To be fair to the critics, its totally wrong for an active duty general to publicly disagree with his CinC.
Thus, its possible that they did privately raise concerns then. Its also possible they are now in 20/20 hindsight mode.
No, Zinni had already retired from the USMC in July 2000. He never served in the military under Bush. Later Powell appointed him to be a special Middle East envoy much to the chagrin of career diplomats.
Zinni was upset because Franks, his replacement at CENTCOM, did not follow the war plans against Iraq drafted under Zinni. Franks used fewer troops and a more aggressive attack than Zinni's plan.
Zinni was in charge when the USS Cole was bombed in Yemen.
In the Department of Defense there are:
34 - four star generals/admirals
124 - three star generals/admirals
278 - two star generals/admirals
439 - one star generals/admirals
Throw in the U.S. Coast Guard and you have 900 generals and admirals on active duty today. This is roughly the same number of generals/admirals who were on active duty in WWII when our military was 12,000,000 strong.
Given that on any given year 15-20% of those generals/admirals will retire each year it doesn't take much figuring to realize that the number of generals calling for Secretary Rumsfeld to resign is laughable.
The Cole bombing was Oct '00.
"They're used to trampling on subordinates, not having it done to them for being less than 100% competent."
This may be off-topic - but there are few things as delicious as seeing an officious staff-eating senior officer getting a dose of their own medicine during a briefing.
Newbold says his opposition to the Iraq invasion--and plans for the operation--were "well known" within the Pentagon. But apparently, his opposition was not enough for General Newbold to resign over principle. In fact, one Donald Rumsfeld attended Newbold's retirement dinner in 2004.
At that dinner, Pentagon insiders report, a tape was played from a 2001 press conference conducted by Newbold. During that session, held shortly after the invasion of Afghanistan, Newbold announced that the Taliban had been crushed--or something to that effect. Problem was, major combat operations were still underway, so the Pentagon (and the White House) had to backtrack and cover Newbold's gaffe. By 2004, it was a running joke, but in the early days of the Afghan War, it was a serious mistake. I'm guessing that Newbold's mistake earned the ire of Mr. Rumsfeld, and soured relations between the two men. And not surprisingly, Newbold never earned his fourth star.
http://formerspook.blogspot.com/2006/04/generals-revolt.html
Agreed. Rumsfeld offered his resignation twice to the President, including after Abu Garib, but the President didn't accept it. Rumsfeld has more character than all six of these guys put together.
From September 1996 until August 1997, Zinni served as the Deputy Commander in Chief, United States Central Command. His final tour was from August 1997 to September 2000 as the Commander in Chief, United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Zinni
So he headed CENTCOM just after Khobar Towers (Jun 96) and during the twin embassy bombings in Africa (Aug 98).
Howdy! Good seeing you again. :-)
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