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.

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