Yesterday 3 retired military officers; 2 two star Generals and a Colonel pulled no punches in a Senate Hearing held by the Democrats pertaining to Donald Rumsfeld and his handling of the war in Iraq. All three have fought in the war and each had his opinion.

“I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq,” retired Army Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste told the panel. Mr. Batiste, a self-described Republican who has been criticizing Rumsfeld for months, said the secretary “forbade military planners from developing plans for securing a postwar Iraq” and helped create the current insurgency by ignoring the potential for one, though it was “an absolute certainty.”

Retired Army Maj. Gen.Paul D. Eaton, who criticized Rumsfeld in the New York Times last spring, said the post-invasion effort in Iraq is about 60,000 troops short of what it needs for success and that the Army “is in terrible shape,” lacking proper equipment and resources. He said Rumsfeld falls short “strategically operationally and tactically.”

Retired Marine Col. Thomas X. Hammes said administration leaders have “failed to acknowledge we are in a war” and has not provided sufficient equipment, adequately supported the efforts to train Iraqis or asked Americans to make any wartime sacrifices.

All three of the retired leaders, however, backed up the administration assertion that pulling out of Iraq now would be disastrous and cause a dangerous regional instability. Rumsfeld said yesterday he has no intention of resigning and Senate Republicans sent out a long list of retired military leaders who strongly and publicly support him.

The calls for Rumsfeld’s resignation have come from many people even before the hearings. FOX News commentator Bill O’Reilly, the commander who led the elite 82nd Airborne Division during its mission in Iraq retired Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, former U.S. Central Command chief Anthony Zinni, and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold just to name a few have also have called for Rumsfeld to step down.

Some Republicans have called the hearings yesterday a stunt, and have dismissed the hearings as partisan politics. Republican, Rep. Walter Jones of North Carolina, who also participated in the hearings said.

“The American people have a right to know any time that we make a decision to send Americans to die for this country,”

Senate Republican circulated a statement from four retired military officers which read:

“(W)e do not believe that it is appropriate for active duty, or retired, senior military officers to publicly criticize U.S. civilian leadership during war.”

The group included two three-star generals, John Crosby and Thomas McInerny, and a pair of two-star generals, Burton Moore and Paul Vallely.

Just a few minutes ago an article was published in the Times a UK paper which report that the Army Chief of Staff, General Peter Shoomaker, has refused to submit a budget plan for 2008 in protest at the demands the Pentagon is placing on America’s overstretched military. The Los Angeles Times reported yesterday that General Schoomaker was seeking $138.8 billion (£72.5 billion) for 2008, or nearly $25 billion more than the limit originally set by Mr Rumsfeld. The Army’s budget this year is $98 billion.

The overstretch is hitting troops serving in Iraq the hardest. The 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division, is being extended in Iraq because the unit that is scheduled to replace them — the 1st Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, needs more time to prepare. If it had deployed as scheduled, it would not have had the minimum 12 months at home between combat tours.

The 3rd Infantry has already served two tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion of the country in March 2003.

The Army has an active-duty force of about half a million soldiers. About 400,000 have done at least one tour of combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan and more than one third of those have been deployed twice.

I myself believe that civilians should not run wars and that includes this one. Unless the top military leader has commanded troops on the battlefield, or actually fought in a war he has no way of really knowing what it is really like on the battlefield. Leave politics to the civilians and war to the Generals. Let them do what they do best.

So what is your opinion? Should Rumsfeld resign or do you believe he is doing a great job in Iraq?