Theodore Roosevelt famously said American foreign policy should “speak softly and carry a big stick.” In planning and executing the war in Iraq, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has done the opposite, pursuing an aggressive policy with inadequate forces and little deference to diplomatic expertise. While coalition forces were powerful enough to swiftly subdue the Iraqi army, Rumsfeld completely underestimated the problem of maintaining internal security after Saddam Hussein was overthrown. U.S. force levels might have been adequate if the Iraqi army, purged of its top Baathist elements, had been transformed to maintain order. Instead, that army was disbanded, setting thousands of unemployed soldiers adrift, some of whom joined the insurgency.
No doubt those were some of the blunders Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had in mind when she recently said the U.S. had committed “thousands of tactical mistakes” even as she defended the overall decision to go into Iraq and oust Hussein. Rumsfeld needs all the friends he can get these days, but he wasn’t giving ground to Rice. He replied to her comments by saying: “I don’t know what she was talking about.”
Rice’s predecessor, Colin Powell, was more forthcoming. “We didn’t have enough troops on the ground,” he said. “We didn’t impose our will. And as a result, an insurgency got started, and … it got out of control.”
Criticism from Foggy Bottom is one thing, but now Rumsfeld is losing the confidence of American military commanders. While the principle of civilian control ensures that active-duty personnel will close ranks behind Rumsfeld, or stay silent, a number of prominent retired generals have recently urged Rumsfeld’s replacement.
These are all men who know their way around Iraq: Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq in 2004-05; retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory S. Newbold was director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff until October 2002; retired Marine Gen. Anthony C. Zinni was a Clinton-era head of U.S. Central Command; and retired Army Maj. Gen. Paul D. Eaton ran the training of Iraqi forces during 2003.
Batiste, who served as top military assistant to then-deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz before going to Iraq, said on Wednesday, “I think we need a fresh start” at the Pentagon. “We need leadership up there that respects the military as they expect the military to respect them. And that leadership needs to understand teamwork.”
Mistakes are an inevitable and honorable part of war and of life itself, but an effective leader must recognize those mistakes and learn from them. Rumsfeld doesn’t often seem burdened by second thoughts, but he should be having them now as he weighs his continued tenure.
