re: Gen. Douglas MacArthur "dug out dug"

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Ok, Darth... now let's get into WHY FDR wanted him out. Let's discuss his complete and utter failure at defending the Philippines in the first place.

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You're exactly right. He did fail to defend the Philippines even though, counting Filipino forces, he had more men under his command than did General Homma for the Japanese. Although I will say his forces were woefully under-equipped comparative to the Japanese, especially in armor & artillery. And on top of that, while the Japanese could resupply their forces, MacArthur was totally cut off from any resupply.

Still, he squandered basically his entire air force on the first day of the war when he allowed the Japs to catch virtually all his aircraft parked wingtip to wingtip on the ground, which to me of all his mistakes is the most inexcusable considering the hours warning he had to get ready.

Also, In my opinion he fell back to his final, last ditch stand position on the Bataan peninsula too fast and allowed much of his supplies to fall into the Japanese hands. He could have fell back in a much more orderly fashion, conserving his men and supplies. But he didn't. And in the end, I'm not sure it would have made much difference anyway seeing how the US had no relief force ready to come to the aid of the Philippines anyway. Bottom line is that no matter what MacArthur did, the Philippines were going to fall. Still, that does not excuse his poor generalship during the campaign.