The three-star Marine Corps general who was the military's top operations officer before the invasion of Iraq expressed regret, in an essay published on Sunday, that he did not more energetically question those who had ordered the US to war. He also urged active-duty officers to speak out now if they had doubts about the war.
Lieutenant General Gregory Newbold, who retired in late 2002, also called for replacing Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and "many others unwilling to fundamentally change their approach."
He is the third retired senior officer in recent weeks to demand that Rumsfeld step down.
In the essay, in this week's issue of Time magazine, Newbold wrote: "I now regret that I did not more openly challenge those who were determined to invade a country whose actions were peripheral to the real threat -- al-Qaeda."
The decision to invade Iraq, he wrote, "was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions -- or bury the results."
Though some active-duty officers will say in private that they disagree with Rumsfeld's handling of Iraq, none have spoken out publicly. They attribute their silence to respect for civilian control of the military, as set in the Constitution -- but some also acknowledge that it would be professional suicide to speak up.
Newbold served as director of operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from the summer of 2000 through the Sept. 11 attacks and the war in Afghanistan. He left the military in late 2002.
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