Should Rumsfeld Resign?

Monday April 17, 2006

For the past few days, there have been several news items about retired US generals calling for their former boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to resign because of his perceived errors in the Iraq war. It's really a moot point, because the only two people who can make that happen are Secretary Rumsfeld himself and the President. Neither of them is going to make that move any time soon. However, it does raise a number of interesting issues related to leadership. And those leadership issues are why I'm bringing it up here.

US Generals are prohibited by law (UCMJ, Article 88) from criticizing their civilian superiors. That's why it is only the retired generals who are speaking out against Rumsfeld. But how valid are their complaints? Why are they not equally harsh on the former top generals who either didn't know better or didn't have the guts to stand up to the Secretary of Defense? Why single out the Secretary? Why not call for the resignation of his boss too. After all, the President has the final say in these matters.

This reminds me so much of the Enron collapse of a few years ago. The people who got hurt were the loyal "foot soldiers", the rank and file employees of the company. The judicial system has been investigating, and is now taking the senior Enron officers to trial for their actions related to the collapse. Several senior officials have been convicted or have pled guilty. The current trial is attempting to place blame on the top two former officers, ex-Chairman Ken Lay and ex-CEO Jeffrey Skilling. Both claim as their defense that the errors were made by someone below them, Andrew Fastow, the former CFO.

Whether we talking about George Bush or Ken Lay, isn't the top guy supposed to know what's going on and take responsibility for it? What kind of leadership does it show when Skilling blames the CFO or Rumsfeld says the generals are making the decisions?

Leadership is a two way street. You have to be loyal to your boss, but bosses have to be loyal to their subordinates. Without that, leadership can't function. You may not always agree with your boss. You probably don't. There is nothing wrong with arguing with him (or her) about the input to a decision. However, once the decision has been made, you have an obligation to either stand up and support that decision or get up and leave the organization.

You can vote on this issue and/or add your comments in our poll "Should Rumsfeld resign?"