"Norman Schwartzkopf rates a 7" Topic

You were asked – TMP link

On a scale of 1 (low) to 10 (excellent), how would you rate Norman Schwartzkopf as a military leader?

Average response: 7.42

He did a great job in Desert Storm, but he had every advanage. He only had to flank thre Iraqi forcees in Kuwait to completey route the entire Iraqi army.

He was competent. As the Captain says, he had every advantage, yes, but there has been many a time that the side with the advantages does something dumb and it goes the wrong way.
He avoided this happening..

He really messed up! He went public in saying that he was going to go into Bagdad and kick Saddam's butt. This was AFTER President Bush said the coalition was going to stop at the Iraqi border. His comment went against the Commander-in-Chief's public declaration. Remember MacArthur did a similar stunt in Korea and Truman set the stage for how future presidents should act in reining in rogue generals. Colin Powell (who was the Chairman of Joint Chiefs) visited him the day after his statement.

Colin had a difficult job. Schwarzkopf held the trust of the coalition and to replace him would have put the operation behind until another could be found that had the confidence of the coalition partners. Based upon the events that followed, we can surmise that Powell presented him with the notification that he will be offered an opportunity to retire after the operation or be fired. The rest is history.

I watched his public statement live when stationed at FEN in Yokota and pointed this foo-paw out to my fellow broadcast staff. "Bet he gets an opportunity to retire for his hawkish statement." I recently found my copy of his autobiography and now feel compelled to re-read his side of things. Indeed, he was a forceful and competent multinational leader but (IMHO) let his mouth override his …behind.

If interested, check out the timeline of events.

Another competent general victimized by politics.

Competent, yes.
Well trained, and it was his turn to command.
He had superior weapons, and superior trained forces. He also outnumbered the bad guys and had a wide open flank.
And was undercut by worry wort politicians.