Democrats Join Calls for Rumsfeld Resignation

"My view is that the secretary should step aside," said Governor Richardson.

WASHINGTON, April 16, 2006 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Senior US Democrats joined on Sunday, April 16, a mounting campaign championed by a cohort of retired generals for embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign over mishandling the Iraqi war.

"My view is that the secretary should step aside," New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, told CBS's "Face the Nation" program, reported Reuters.

"Besides the fact that the Iraq war has been mismanaged ... we should listen to what these generals are saying."

The battle of words over Rumsfeld, his relations with military leaders and the Iraq war followed unusual public calls in the past week for his resignation from six retired generals.

"These are six distinguished military officers," Richardson said. "They basically are saying that Secretary Rumsfeld, on issues relating to military strategy ... didn't listen to them."

The generals include Maj. Gen. John Batiste, who commanded the 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, and Maj. Gen. Charles Swannack, who led the Army's 82nd Airborne Division in Iraq, and former NATO commander Gen. Wesley Clark.

General Anthony Zinni, the former chairman of the US Central Command, asserted on Sunday, April 3, that several top administration officials, chiefly Rumsfeld, must loose their jobs over disastrous and strategic mistakes in Iraq.

Rumsfeld has seen his ratings in freefall over the past three years mainly due to his policies in the Arab country, including failure to provide sufficient Interceptor Body Armors (IBAs) for his troops in Iraq.
-continued-