Rumsfeld has no plans to quit

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says he is not thinking of quitting despite several retired generals' appeals for him to do so. He discounted any suggestion of widespread dissent within the military's officer corps. At a Pentagon news conference, Rumsfeld sought to portray the recent public airing of grievances against him by some former Iraq war commanders and other retired generals as an inevitable consequence of his hard push for fundamental changes in the military establishment to fight the war on terrorism. "When you make a decision, you make a choice, somebody is not going to like it," he said. "It's perfectly possible to come into this department and preside and not make choices, in which case people are not unhappy, until about five years later when they find you haven't done anything and the country isn't prepared."