What is Your Major Malfunction?

To the Editor:

I am writing in response to the recent criticism against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. I believe the six retired generals of the United States Army who called for the resignation of the secretary have violated the seven Army values.

Criticizing a superior in command violates loyalty, respect, honor and integrity. I can understand someone saying, these generals are no longer under the command of Secretary Rumsfeld and are now just ordinary citizens. However, it does not set a good example for the military personnel currently serving under his command.

Josh

The thing is, I don't think anyone argues that the retired generals are 'just ordinary citizens.' They are experts and primary sources, and they have a much better perspective on military affairs than Josh, myself, or Donald Rumsfeld. It is for this reason that their input is of prime importance. Current military personnel are not able to be forthright about the mission, but retired generals can, and to suggest that they should not do so is to disparage a valuable asset to our national security.

I expect our military to be loyal to their country first, not to their civilian commanders. When the decisions and actions of the civilian commanders lead to the kind of disaster that Iraq has become, those commanders deserve to be held responsible by all parties, including those who were most directly affected. The outcry against these men has little to do with military protocol. Those who want to prolong the fantasy of a successful Iraqi occupation are angry that they now have opponents with whom they cannot argue on purely ideological terms. No one can realistically argue that these retired generals are uninformed idiots, liberal pacifists, or anti-administration secularists, the labels most commonly thrown around by nationalists to discredit the vocal anti-war crowd without having to actually discuss the reaity of the situation in Iraq. Their only reaction is to criticize the retired generals for the act of criticism itself, something that generals were criticized for not doing following Vietnam.