"I believe that Secretary Rumsfeld and others in the administration did not tell the American people the truth for fear of losing support for the war in Iraq," retired Maj. Gen. John R. S. Batiste told a forum conducted by Senate Democrats.

A second military leader, also a retired two-star general, Maj. Gen. Paul Eaton, assessed Rumsfeld as "incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically."

A third officer, retired Col. Paul X. Hammes, joined Batiste and Eaton in testimony before the Democratic Policy Committee of the U.S. Senate.

The unusual location was chosen, Democrats said, because the Republican leadership in the Senate has not permitted thorough oversight of the war in Iraq from the Senate Armed Services Committee. Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said majority Republicans had failed to conduct hearings on the issue, adding, "if they won't ... we will."

All three officers who testified served in Iraq, and Batiste also was senior military assistant to then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz.

Batiste, who commanded the Army's 1st Infantry Division in Iraq, also blamed Congress for failing to ask "the tough questions."

He said Rumsfeld at one point threatened to fire the next person who mentioned the need for a postwar plan in Iraq.

"Mr. Rumsfeld and his immediate team must be replaced or we will see two more years of extraordinarily bad decision-making," General Eaton said.

Last March General Eaton said the Secretary of Defense should resign. General Eaton wrote in a commentary in The New York Times that "Rumsfeld is not competent to lead America's armed forces," and that President Bush should accept the resignation that Rumsfeld has offered in the past. Mr. Eaton was in charge of training the Iraqi military from 2003 to 2004.

"Rumsfeld has put the Pentagon at the mercy of his ego, his Cold Warrior's view of the world and his unrealistic confidence in technology to replace manpower. As a result, the US Army finds itself severely undermanned � cut to 10 active divisions but asked by the administration to support a foreign policy that requires at least 12 or 14, General Eaton wrote in The New York Times Op-Ed on March 20, 2006.

Eaton also said of Mr. Rumsfeld, "his failure to build coalitions with U.S. allies from what he dismissively called 'old Europe' has imposed far greater demands and risks on American soldiers in Iraq than necessary."

Hammes was also critical of the equipment available to the Army world-wide. He said all the good equipment had gone to Iraq, leaving troops training to go without their full complement. Hammes said that not providing the best equipment was a "serious moral failure on the part of our leadership."

Hammes was responsible for establishing bases for the Iraqi armed forces. He served in Iraq in 2004 and is now Marine Senior Military Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, National Defense University.

The testimony was the most riveting I have heard since I first came to the halls of Congress in 1972.

The conflict, now in its fourth year, has claimed the lives of more than 2,600 American troops and cost more than $300 billion.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) called the Democratic hearings a "stunt." Many other Republican leaders also condemned or ridiculed the event.

I listened with extreme interest and I am a retired military officer myself. The event did not look or feel anything like a stunt to me. The three retired officers were forthright and direct in their criticism. They are tired of seeing men die and suffer tremendous wounds in a conflict they feel is poorly managed and under funded.

Republican Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) was more cautious in his criticism. "My instinct is, once the election is over, there will be a lot more hard thinking about what to do about Iraq and a lot more candid observations about it."

The three retired officers also made the point that the United States has never mobilized for this war. "Only about 1 percent of the American population is involved in this thing," one of the three said. The three agreed that each and every government department at the federal level should have a major role to play in the war. Instead, the Defense department at the pentagon has about the only major role.

One of the officers told the committee, "I was shocked to come home to find nobody was involved in this war at home. It is business as usual in the United States."

A government National Intelligence Estimate also became public that concluded the war has helped create a new generation of Islamic radicalism and that the overall terrorist threat has grown since the attacks of September 11, 2001. Senators at the hearing said the entire report should be declassified and released to the public in its entirety.

Senators Harry Reid (D-NV), Hillary Clinton (D-NY), and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) were among those at the hearing who asked questions. Senator Schumer said the testimony was the most important and enthralling he had ever heard in his years in the Congress.

Only one Republican, Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) participated. The Camp Lejeune Marine Corps base is in his district.

"The American people have a right to know any time that we make a decision to send Americans to die for this country," said Jones.