Again, you're thinking of him as the single entity that he is in the Matrix. In the real he controlled ALL of the Sentinels. You're hung up on the fact that he mentioned being two places at nearly the same time, that's because as a program, he WAS everywhere. He saw what every sentinel saw and told them what to do. He as a program chased Niobe through the tunnels, but through the Sentinels that were there. He was also guiding the sentinels through the attack of Zion, both waves. However, there is nothing to suggest that he is physically there or that he had a body to start off with.

He was the CPU of the Sentinels, he gave them orders and received all the information they received. He is the brain of the Sentinels, ALL of them. He does not control just waves or battallions, he controls all of them at the same time.

Ok, here's the simple version.

General controls and sees what the Sentinels do, Sentinels do it. General is not a sentinel (as far as we know)

It's been mentioned that he is a single entity outside of the Matrix.

"What about the General?" ~Player

"Oh, that old warship?" ~Oracle.

It's been mentioned that he is a single entity outside of the Matrix.

"What about the General?" ~Player

"Oh, that old warship?" ~Oracle.

there are 2 schools of leadership into combat, there is the alexander the great school of thought where riding into battle along with your men inspires them, and then there is the second school of thought where the "important people" need to distance themselves from the fighting to properly command (also known as the *CENSORED* commander school of thought)

the machines really did need motivation to attack and destroy zion, plus the general did not get zapped in the emp, so we can assess that the general believes in the latter school of thought

so, such a massive battle, the general was likely in zero one in a bunker

EMP's do not have infinite range.  It would be easy for the Machines to send in some sentinels and let Zion use up all their EMP's on them, and then attack with another wave of sentinels.

Illyria

The General was the OS for the Sentinels as a whole. He is not one sentinel, but he controls them all. Each commando we see, they are individual sentinels

He is the War Program, and nothing else. He is the collective consciousness of ALL of the Sentinels, or at least the central brain of them all. It could be said that when the Deus Ex Machina accepted Neo's offer of peace that the signal was immediately relayed to "The General" and from there it trickled down into the other Sentinels.

The General probably doesn't even have a location outside of the Matrix. He travels between all of the Sentinels, within pico-seconds.

Allow me to remove some of the confusion in this thread.

Think of The General as a strategist and commander.  I've never seen any evidence to support him being the consciousness for sentinals.  He designed the attack against Zion based on the previous successful attacks he lead against them and his knowledge gained from studying the historic wars of men.  Elements of his strategy that can be seen in the attack are the use of different waves of sentinals and using the drills.  He didn't need to be on the battlefield, he just commanded the army.

The Commandos or sentinals are not "controlled" by him, but they follow his orders.  As you can plainly see for yourself in the last cinematic.

When Dues Ex Machina sent a command to the General to stop the attack, (an attack that was assured success) he refused and was removed from his position.  He went into exile along with all of the sentinals that would follow him.

Allow me to remove some of the confusion in this thread.

Think of The General as a strategist and commander.  I've never seen any evidence to support him being the consciousness for sentinals.  He designed the attack against Zion based on the previous successful attacks he lead against them and his knowledge gained from studying the historic wars of men.  Elements of his strategy that can be seen in the attack are the use of different waves of sentinals and using the drills.  He didn't need to be on the battlefield, he just commanded the army.

The Commandos or sentinals are not "controlled" by him, but they follow his orders.  As you can plainly see for yourself in the last cinematic.

When Dues Ex Machina sent a command to the General to stop the attack, (an attack that was assured success) he refused and was removed from his position.  He went into exile along with all of the sentinals that would follow him.