WASHINGTON, April 15: President George Bush on Friday declared his ‘full support’ for embattled US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, moving to quell calls for his resignation by a growing numbers of retired generals.
“Secretary Rumsfeld’s energetic and steady leadership is exactly what is needed at this critical period,” Mr Bush said in a statement. “He has my full support and deepest appreciation.”
Mr Bush stepped in after six retired generals called for Mr Rumsfeld’s ouster, exposing a deep vein of discontent with his leadership within the military.
The generals, several of whom held key combat commands and staff positions, accused Mr Rumsfeld of an arrogant disregard for military advice and for providing too few troops to pacify Iraq.
However, retired Gen Richard Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, rushed to Mr Rumsfeld’s defence.
“My whole perception of this is it’s bad for the military, and for military relations, and it’s very bad for the country, potentially, because what we are hearing and what we are seeing is not the role the military play in our society,” Gen Myers said in an interview with CNN, broadcast on Friday.
Mr Bush, who was at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Maryland, praised Mr Rumsfeld’s leadership after talking with him about US military operations.
“I have seen first-hand how Don relies upon our military commanders in the field and at the Pentagon to make decisions about how best to complete these missions,” Mr Bush said.
Mr Rumsfeld, 73, rejected the calls for his ouster in an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya television that aired on Friday.
“I intend to serve the president at his pleasure,” he said.
Mr Rumsfeld said the retired generals had a right to their views.
“But obviously if, out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defence of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round,” he said.
He also rejected criticism that he had not given his commanders the troops they needed to pacify Iraq, a key contention of the retired generals.
The retired generals have called for Mr Rumsfeld’s resignation in a recent sequence of opinion pieces and television interviews that bitterly criticised his leadership style and the decisions he took in invading Iraq.
With one after another voicing similar complaints, the calls have taken on the appearance of a choreographed campaign.
But retired major general John Batiste, a former commander Who fought in Iraq, said it was not orchestrated, but a spontaneous outpouring of discontent that had built over a long time.
“I think it’s absolutely coincidental,” he said on NBC television.
Gen Batiste said he had not talked to any of the other generals about his decision before coming out against Mr Rumsfeld.
But he said the officers shared their feelings privately when they were on active duty.
“We were all disgruntled,” he said in an interview with PBS television.
The attacks prompted a vehement defence of Mr Rumsfeld earlier this week by Gen Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Lt Gen John Vines, the number two commander in Iraq, also spoke out for Mr Rumsfeld, telling The New York Times: “I support my secretary of defence.”
The eruption of military discontent has come just after the third anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, with no clear exit for the 132,000 US troops there in sight.
The retired generals have said fresh thinking is needed on Iraq, but none have called for a withdrawal of US forces or put forward fundamentally different ideas for pacifying the country.
Instead, much of the discussion has been about holding Mr Rumsfeld accountable for committing too few troops to the Iraq invasion, not planning for the aftermath of the invasion and other early decisions such as disbanding the Iraqi army.—AFP
