Rumsfeld gets more backing over Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Supporters rallied around Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld yesterday, saying he is being made a scapegoat for the difficult situation in Iraq by retired generals who have called for his removal.

In comments that echoed a Pentagon memo circulated to Rumsfeld's supporters, retired General Richard B. Myers, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and key Republican members of Congress insisted that Rumsfeld's critics were wrong to blame the military chief for problems in Iraq.

More Democrats also joined the fray, asserting that the defense secretary had planned poorly and had led with arrogance, and that the combination has been largely to blame for the failure to stabilize Iraq. They said it is time for change at the Pentagon.

The war of words renewed the political controversy surrounding Rumsfeld, who came under an unusual public attack last week by six retired Iraq war generals. Among the criticisms was that the defense secretary had refused to send enough troops to Iraq for the occupation to succeed.

On ABC's ''The Week" yesterday, Myers rejected assertions that Rumsfeld had intimidated him and other military leaders into signing off on the defense secretary's plan to go into Iraq with a light force, against their judgment.

''I don't believe that is correct at all," Myers said. ''One of the things about Secretary Rumsfeld and working for him is you have tremendous access, and you can present your arguments."

Myers said officials were wrong to fault retired General Eric K. Shinseki, former Army chief of staff, for telling a Senate committee in 2003 that several hundred thousand troops might be needed to secure Iraq after the invasion. He said Shinseki, who was later replaced as chief, was pressed to give an estimate and was not committed to that figure.

Myers added that it was inappropriate for uniformed military officers to criticize civilian leaders in public. ''When it's all said and done," Myers said, ''in our system the civilian control of the military means the civilians make the decision . . . and we live by those decisions."

But the dispute among the retired generals became fodder for members of Congress of both parties, including several who are potential candidates for their party's 2008 presidential nomination.

On CBS's ''Face the Nation," for example, the New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson, a likely Democratic presidential contender, said that Rumsfeld had ''mismanaged" the Iraq war and that he should ''should step aside."

''What you're seeing is deep frustration in the military," Richardson said, ''deep frustration within our troops who are not getting enough armor. . . . It is obvious that Secretary Rumsfeld did not listen to them. . . . That's why we're in this morass."

Senator George Allen of Virginia, a likely Republican presidential contender, sharply disagreed. He said that Rumsfeld had been a victim of ''scapegoating" by Bush's political enemies, and that changing the defense secretary would not solve the problems in Iraq.

''In the event that you switch the secretary of defense, what difference would that make?" Allen said. ''Would that mean anything to the terrorists? Would that mean anything insofar as the training of Iraqis . . .? A lot of this focus on an individual is a way of maybe criticizing the president."

The questions about Rumsfeld's stewardship of the Pentagon have arisen amid a surge of sectarian violence in Iraq, and amid talk of a possible military strike against suspected nuclear sites in Iran, raising the possibility of civil war in Iraq and a broadened Middle East conflict.

The continued fighting over Rumsfeld and Iraq also suggested that President Bush's declaration on Friday that the defense secretary had his ''full support" was not enough to quash the controversy.

Seeking to reinforce the assertion that Rumsfeld listens to military leaders, the Pentagon released a ''fact sheet" yesterday stating: ''US senior military leaders are involved to an unprecedented degree in every decision-making process in the Department of Defense."

The memo, the existence of which was first reported in The New York Times, said Rumsfeld had met 139 times with members of the joint staffs and 208 times with combat commanders since 2005.

Also yesterday, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, said on CNN that replacing Rumsfeld would simply be a ''cosmetic" change, and that six critics amounted to a trivial number among thousands of retired generals.

But Rumsfeld's critics said several of the retired generals who have called for the defense secretary's resignation last week had played key roles in the Iraq war invasion and in the rebuilding effort, and have firsthand knowledge of how the operation unfolded.

The six generals who spoke out against Rumsfeld last week were retired Major General John Batiste; retired Major General Paul Eaton; retired Lieutenant General Greg Newbold; retired Major General John Riggs; retired Major General Charles Swannack; and retired General Anthony Zinni.

In addition, over the weekend, retired General Wesley Clark, a former commander of NATO and a 2004 candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, joined the call for Rumsfeld's resignation.

The critics' central assertion was that Rumsfeld had denied and discouraged requests for more troops by uniformed military specialists, and that the lack of manpower on the ground had allowed the insurgency and the sectarian violence to grow.

Hunter yesterday also questioned the retired generals' central criticism: that Iraq would be safer with fewer casualties, had more US troops been sent in.

He said more troops would have generated more casualties from roadside bombs detonated by remote devices. He also suggested that a heavier US occupation presence would have further alienated Iraqi civilians.

But Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said on CNN that she thinks Rumsfeld should step down. She said the error of Rumsfeld's plan to send a light force into Iraq has been evident since the uncontrolled looting in the early days after the fall of Baghdad.

''The problem is that the strategy set up by Mr. Rumsfeld has been deeply flawed, and has created a major problem in Iraq," Feinstein said.

Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat of Indiana, and a potential presidential candidate, first called on Rumsfeld to resign two years ago. Yesterday, on ABC's ''This Week," he said the issue now is about ''the president's decision-making and judgment."

Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, said on ''Fox News Sunday" that the criticism from the retired generals ''is a very, very important event."

''We ought to pay a lot of attention," Dodd said. ''And the president would be very wise, in my view, asking him to step aside."