Top Retired Officers from Iraq War Courageously Speak Truth About Rumsfeld

I think every concerned citizen needs to become informed on what just took place in Washington. I watched most of yesterday's hearing by the Democratic Policy Committee on the Iraq occupation. It featured absolutely riveting and alarming testimony on Rumsfeld's grievous errors and deadly mistakes by three high-ranking military officers with recent on-the-ground experience in Iraq -- U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Batiste (right), U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton and U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Hammes, all recently retired. Their statements about what can only be called dereliction of duty and profound arrogance and stupidity on the part of Defense Secretary Rumsfeld must be heard and read to be believed.

Remember, too, that official congressional hearings with straight-talking realists like these officers have never been called or allowed by the Republican leadership. Instead, Dems have been forced to hold more informal hearings on their own, with only Democrats participating in most cases. I guess the Repubs aren't interested in hearing the truth. It would interfere with their election season spin. Meanwhile, more unecessary, tragic death and destruction occurs daily, with nothing but "resolve" coming from the Bush administration -- resolve, apparently, to ignore any and all informed advice or criticism.

AlterNet has complete transcripts of the opening statements by all three high ranking officers, as well as a video clip of part of Gen. Batiste's testimony. There's much more in the question and answer segments, and you can see the entire hearing, convened by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), on CSPAN's website.

A few quotes:

"Secretary Rumsfeld's dismal strategic decisions resulted in the unnecessary deaths of American servicemen and women, our allies, and the good people of Iraq. He was responsible for America and her allies going to war with the wrong plan and a strategy that did not address the realities of fighting an insurgency. He violated fundamental principles of war, dismissed deliberate military planning, ignored the hard work to build the peace after the fall of Saddam Hussein, set the conditions for Abu Ghraib and other atrocities that further ignited the insurgency, disbanded Iraqi security force institutions when we needed them most, constrained our commanders with an overly restrictive de-Ba'athification policy, and failed to seriously resource the training and equipping of the Iraqi security forces as our main effort." -- Maj. General Batiste (Ret.)

"The President charged Secretary Rumsfeld to prosecute this war, a man who has proven himself incompetent strategically, operationally, and tactically. Mr. Rumsfeld came into his position with an extraordinary arrogance, and an agenda -- to turn the military into a lighter, more lethal armed force. In fact, Rumsfeld's vision is a force designed to meet a Warsaw Pact type force more effectively.

We are not fighting the Warsaw Pact. We are fighting an insurgency, a distributed low-tech, high-concept war that demands greater numbers of ground forces, not fewer. Mr. Rumsfeld won't acknowledge this fact and has failed to adapt to the current situation. He has tried and continues to fight this war on the cheap." -- Maj. General Eaton (Ret.)

"The critical issue is leadership. All of the suggestions I have made will not be carried out unless the leadership believes it needs to be done. Given the fact that the Secretary of Defense has not acknowledged the numerous, serious mistakes made to date, I do not believe it is possible for him to provide the leadership necessary to succeed in Iraq. It is time for him to provide the nation the last in a long series of services, and step down." -- Colonel Hammes (Ret.)