A joint editorial in four US military magazines has called on US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld to resign.
The editorial, published today in the Army Times, says the blame for US failures in Iraq rests with the Secretary of Defence but it is the troops who bear the brunt of those failures.
The Army Times is a magazine owned by the same company that publishes the USA Today newspaper and is sold directly to US military personnel.
It has been critical of Mr Rumsfeld before and implicitly called for his resignation in the fallout from the Abu Ghraib scandal two years ago.
Declaring that Donald Rumsfeld's strategy in Iraq has failed and his leadership compromised, it calls on US President George W Bush to face what it describes as a 'hard, bruising, truth'.
White House Press Secretary Tony Snow said Mr Bush's reaction to the editorial was to 'shrug it off'.
While a spokesman for Army Times said the timing of the editorial was not meant to sway voters.
Mid-term elections take place on Tuesday, with polls predicting the Republican Party will lose its majority in the House of Representatives and face several close races to retain its majority in the Senate.
The biggest issue in the campaign has been the Iraq war, with a majority of voters critical of its handling by the administration.
