Amid the latest flurry of attacks on the secretary of defense, our own thoughts turned to a heroine of the Cold War, Midge Decter, who has a way of seeing over the horizon. Near the end of her 2003 book “Rumsfeld,” Ms. Decter quotes Donald Rumsfeld as saying that tension is avoidable “by doing nothing” or “by acquiescing in anything that anyone else thinks is appropriate.”

“That way, of course, you end up having a very pleasant tour of duty,” Mr. Rumsfeld is quoted by Ms. Decter as saying. “But as for me, I was having a very pleasant life before I got here, so I didn’t come looking for a pleasant tour of duty. I came thinking, maybe we can do some good, get some things changed. And once you start down that road, of course, somebody’s not going to like it.”

Ms. Decter predicted back in 2003 that “there would continue to be conflict in Rumsfeld’s life as secretary of defense.” And, she said, “what was equally predictable was that anyone who opposed him would soon discover, as many already had, that he could simultaneously be both an immovable object and an irresistible force.”

These are thoughts worth remembering for those on the political left and even the some on the right – William Kristol, David Brooks – who have called for Mr. Rumsfeld’s departure. Ambassador Holbrooke offers his thoughts on our opinion page today. The anti-Rumsfeld forces have lately gained momentum from comments by some former generals, given generous display by the New York Times over the weekend.

But it is worth remembering that a former general, Wesley Clark, and a former lieutenant, John Kerry, called for replacing Mr. Rumsfeld – indeed, for replacing the commander in chief, President Bush – back in November 2004, when the known facts were little different than they are today. They were resoundingly rejected by the American people in an election with historically large turnout.

The same left that found civilian control of the military so important when it came to allowing gays to serve back in the Clinton years now wants to bow to the retired generals discontented with Mr. Rumsfeld. The same left that ignored the four former generals and two former admirals who issued a report of the Center for Security Policy in 1994, republished in Commentary, that warned against American troops as peacekeepers on the Golan Heights, now wants to take the word of former generals against Mr. Rumsfeld.

Our own bet would be on the immovable object and on the system of civilian control of the military that, for all the errors along the way, has secured our country now for more than two centuries.