Military Divisions

Three retired military officers say Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld bungled the war in Iraq and call for his resignation. One says he resigned from the military because he could do more for the troops out of uniform than in it.

The Army's top officer refuses to accept Rumsfeld's budget proposal for 2008.

Gary Hart has written an essay about the possibility of a strike against Iran as an "October Surprise." He concludes:

In more rational times, including at the height of the Cold War, bizarre actions such as unilateral, unprovoked, preventive war are dismissed by thoughtful, seasoned, experienced men and women as mad. But those qualities do not characterize our current leadership.

For a divinely guided president who imagines himself to be a latter day Winston Churchill (albeit lacking the ability to formulate intelligent sentences), and who professedly does not care about public opinion at home or abroad, anything is possible, and dwindling days in power may be seen as making the most apocalyptic actions necessary.

Is it possibile that these three stories are related by a common concern?