April 17, 2006 -- General Richard Myers, the retired Air Force General and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, has countered the criticism of several other retired generals on the lack of leadership and management abilities of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. There are several reasons for Myers' support for Rumsfeld. First, the generals who are criticizing Rumsfeld are from the Army and Marine Corps, the branches that have suffered the most casualties and are bearing the brunt of the Iraq fiasco. Myers, on the other hand, is a professional pencil sharpener and paper pusher general who has seen very little combat in "tough" duty stations in Hawaii, Colorado, Alabama, and Japan as opposed to his Marine Corps and Army colleagues. However, this editor personally witnessed testy moments at Pentagon press conferences during the Iraq war between Myers and Rumsfeld, so there are obviously other reasons behind the general's support for Rumsfeld. One is that Myers, who hails from very Republican Kansas, was able to secure a high ranking job in the Bush administration for his niece, Julie Myers, who now serves as the Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security/head of the Bureau of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Myers' only qualifications for the job: having uncle Richard go to bat for her and the endorsement of her her husband, John Wood, the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff.

Myers also has wasted no time in dipping into the coffers of the bloated budget of Bush's military-industrial complex. He serves on the board of Northrop Grumman. Also on the board of John Deere, Myers rubs shoulders with the retired chairman of Lockheed Martin. Donald Rumsfeld has taken good care of Myers in retirement and its obvious that Myers is returning the favor in spades.



The way it works in the Bush regime: Chertoff takes care of Myers' niece Julie and Dick takes care of Don Rumsfeld and Dubya.

Having Myers come to his defense does nothing to help Rumsfeld, except in the eyes of Washington's sycophantic corporate media. Now that the Pentagon neo-cons have sent out a one-page point paper or "fact sheet" to several retired generals to convince them to come to the defense of the almost universally despised Rumsfeld, we can expect other generals, including some notable names, to show their displeasure at this blatant attempt at intimidation and join the chorus of those demanding Rumsfeld's firing.