Now it’s Colin Powell’s turn at the Donald Rumsfeld piñata. He joins at least six other former generals in criticizing Rumsfeld and the flawed plans and rationales for the Iraqi war.
That obviously ratchets up the pressure a few more notches on the Secretary of Defense to step down. It also obviously won’t matter.
What might have mattered were active-duty generals speaking out when it could have made a difference. But they played by the rules and the honorable “good soldier” tradition – taking one for the team and not the country, as it turned out. They eventually channeled their gut criticism into second guessing and scapegoating for their memoirs and cable television’s chattering classes.
Better late than never. Barely.