General Iceberg Speaks Out

Slate Explainer:

Two more retired generals stepped forward on Thursday and called for Donald Rumsfeld to resign, increasing the faction of outspoken officers to six. Rumsfeld brushed off the criticism: "Out of thousands and thousands of admirals and generals, if every time two or three people disagreed we changed the secretary of defense of the United States, it would be like a merry-go-round." How many retired admirals and generals are there?

It's hard to get good numbers, but the Explainer estimates that about 4,700 general officers are enjoying their retirement in the United States right now. (For a detailed look at the data and the Explainer's calculations, click here.) That means the six former generals who stepped forward to criticize Rumsfeld make up about one-tenth of 1 percent of the total community.

Retired generals pipe up all the time.

Dumb.  Just dumb.  This is what should've been in the "explainer":

• How many of these outspoken generals served in Iraq?  3 of 6.
  
  • How many retired generals overall have served in Iraq?  Dunno.  Be nice if that had been, you know, explained.
• How many of these outspoken generals served under Rummy?  5 of 6.
  • How many retired generals overall have served under Rummy?  Dunno. Be nice if that had been, you know, explained.

What's more, is 0.1% of a community speaking out publicly something we should ignore?  If, say...1,000,000 people protest the war or immigration policy (about 0.3% of our population), is that not significant?  I would suggest that's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

ntodd

PS--Zinni has been rather outspoken for a couple years, noting that Bush screwed up and identifying 10 crucial mistakes we made in Iraq.

PPS--I understand Explainer is picking up on Rummy's "thousands and thousands of admirals and generals", but one would think an explainer would dig a little deeper than a defensive, specious argument offered by the guy who really screwed the Iraqi pooch.