The list of former generals calling for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to resign just continues to get longer.Think Progress writes, "Fox News is reporting an eighth general has called for Rumsfeld's resignation. Ret. Marine General Paul Van Riper said he constantly talks with many active duty and retired senior officers who share his feelings that Secretary Rumsfeld has not fought the Iraq war competently. He told Fox that Rumsfeld has run the Pentagon through intimidation and that a change in leadership is needed."
General Van Riper said, "If this leader is not capable of doing it, now going in excess of five years, has not demonstrated he is, then perhaps it is time to find a new one. If I was the president, I would have relieved him three years ago."
Van Riper would mark the eighth former general to come out and say Rumsfeld should step down.
Congressman Harold Ford Jr. agrees with those generals.
In an op-ed this week Ford wrote, "I trust these generals. They know the men and women we send to war ask very little, but they do ask one thing we cannot deny them: a plan for victory built on achievable goals, realistic troop strengths, and honest assessments."
"America is built upon a rock of personal responsibility. Our troops and veterans have accepted theirs. Tennesseans who have supported these great men and women have accepted theirs. And if a seventh-grader at Blountville Middle School can accept hers with grace and dignity, surely the Secretary of Defense can do no less.
Secretary Rumsfeld, it is time for you to account to Amanda. It is time for you to resign."
The Congressman along with the generals clearly understand what is at stake here as long as Rumsfeld remains the Secretary of Defense.
What stillbaffless me is why Ford's opponents have not uttered a peep on this issue.
Their silence leads one to believe that they do indeed support the job that Rumsfeld is doing.
If that is the case they either are not in tune with reality, which is really bad or they are engaging in a game of partisan politics by supporting the failed Republican Defense Secretary.
The stake of our nation and the safety of our troops are in the balance. It is time for Ed Bryant, Van Hilleary, and Bob Corker to recognize that fact.
