Sees his push for change as root of military's anger
By Robert Burns, Associated Press | April 19, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday that he is not thinking of quitting despite several retired generals' calls for him to do so. He discounted any suggestion of widespread dissent within the military's officer corps.
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Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld sought to portray the recent public airing of grievances against him by some former Iraq war commanders and other retired generals as an inevitable consequence of his hard push for changes in the military establishment to fight the war on terrorism.
''When you make a decision, you make a choice, somebody is not going to like it," he said. ''It's perfectly possible to come into this department and preside and not make choices, in which case people are not unhappy, until about five years later when they find you haven't done anything and the country isn't prepared."
Rumsfeld cited several examples of tough choices he has made that have angered some inside the Pentagon. He mentioned a reorganization of the Army's combat units that has been underway since the Iraq war began.
''By golly, one ought not to be surprised that there are people who are uncomfortable about it and complaining about it," he said. ''It's also true that I have a sense of urgency. I get up every morning and worry about protecting the American people and seeing if we are doing everything humanly possible to see that we do the things that will make them safe."
He said he recalled on his way to work yesterday that in his first term as defense secretary -- in the Ford administration in the mid-1970s -- he went against the Army's preferred choice in the design of the M-1 Abrams tank, which remains the Army's main battle tank today. ''Well, you would have thought the world had ended," Rumsfeld said. ''The sky fell."
''It went on and on in the press, and it was a firestorm, and there were congressional hearings and people saying how amazingly irresponsible it was," he said. ''And it calmed down eventually."
On the accusation that he has been dismissive of advice offered by military officers, and that he made strategic missteps in the Iraq war, Rumsfeld said he wanted more time to think about it.
Among the recent complaints against Rumsfeld is his management style.
''The current secretary of defense is dismissive, contemptuous, and arrogant," retired Major General John Batiste said yesterday in an e-mail exchange. ''Many of us have worked for far tougher and more aggressive men, but those leaders understood leadership, the value of teamwork, and that respect is a two-way street."
