"It's the beginning of a very, very serious degradation of the military and politicization of the military," he said.

Donald Rumsfeld, President George W. Bush’s defense secretary, brought Gen. Peter Schoomaker out of retirement to be Army chief of staff. But Schoomaker had also been a four-star general who headed U.S. Special Operations Command, and Rumsfeld wanted to reorient the Army to emphasize special operations.