Yesterday I took a look at a bunch of critical reactions, mainly but not exclusively from the left, to the calls for Donald Rumsfeld to resign coming from high-ranking military officers. Today I take a look at the reactions to the episode, and the anxi...

they continue to be committed to the Powell Doctrine but havenâ??t asked the necessary question: could the strategic objectives have been achieved with that kind of overwhelming force?

It's very difficult to say if 250k troops would have Iraq in better shape now than 150k. But every competent authority who was willing to take an honest look at the situation knew before we invaded that 150k was definitely _not_ going to accomplish the goal of securing & stabilizing Iraq post-combat. These generals may be thinking tactically, but capturing Saddam was only an operational goal. Stabilizing Iraq is the strategic goal, and not even trying to plan for that (which Tommy Franks himself has said they didn't) is nothing less than dereliction of duty.

Of course, that brush might be used to paint the generals currently complaining just as easily as Rumsfeld...

I do not think Secretary Rumsfeld is overly worried about what the media is trying to play up with these few generals speaking out.

Unfortunately though, the Media will only hype and play up the few that dissent, and we will barely hear of the on.....

I’ll probably be accused by some of the hardcore lefties who read this blog of “questioning the patriotism” of the six retired generals who’ve called for Rummy’s ouster, but before I get started let me be clear: that is no...

Just admit you are a liberal, Dave. And because of that you hate Bush and his entire admin and will use the war on terror as a political tool for your parties benefit. Why is it liberals can never admit they are liberals? Maybe they think of liberal as a bad word. Wow-they finally got something right!

These fine men continue to be committed to the welfare of their men and the organization they've helped to build over the years and we're grateful for that. But if we'd gone into Afghanistan with the overwhelming force the Powell Doctrine suggests (how? look at a map) we'd have met with a lot more resistance there. How would that have advanced the strategic objective?

Same with Iraq. If we'd put 500,000 men into Iraq (how?) would we have met with more or less resistance there in the aftermath?

James Joyner has many links of commentary on the retired military generals' call for the resignation of US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and has problems with the designation 'revolt.' Meanwhile at the Wall Street Journal's subscription site...