WASHINGTON, April 10 (UPI) -- A third retired U.S. general has called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to step down over mistakes made in invading Iraq.
In an essay in this week's Time magazine, Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold, a 3-star Marine Corps general, wrote that the decision to invade Iraq "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."
Newbold served as director of operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 2000 through the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and the war in Afghanistan. He left military service in late 2002, the New York Times said.
His essay follows one on March 19, by another retired officer, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, who commanded the training of Iraqi security forces in the year after Baghdad fell. He wrote an Op-Ed article in The New York Times criticizing Rumsfeld's management of the war.
On April 2, Gen. Anthony Zinni, who previously led the military's Central Command, responsible for operations in the Middle East, said in a television interview that Rumsfeld and others should be held accountable for mistakes in Iraq and that he should step down.
