Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Rumsfeld Resigns
The first casualty of the midterm elections is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who has just announced he will resign. I called some time ago for Rumsfeld to step down, if only because as SecDef the burden of the poor decisions in Iraq ultimately rests with him. Rumsfeld will be replaced with Robert Gates, current president of Texas A&M University and former head of the CIA under George H. W. Bush. Gates is a fine, if pedestrian, choice. He is unlikely to bring any fresh thinking or ideas to the problems in Iraq, but at least Rumsfeld has finally paid the political price for his decisions.
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2 comments:
Remember, Eagle Scout Bob Gates, the Boy Scout motto: Be prepared! Rummy forgot and we sent thousands of troops and vehicles to Iraq without the armor they needed to be prepared for IEDs and sniper fire. When you make a choice to go to war, you should make sure you have the Army you want: prepared, well-equipt and well-trained for the type of combat they will be seeing. Anything less is a betrayal of our troops.
I agree, our men and women had problems in Iraq due to equipment shortages and lack of planning - but that's hardly a new thing in war. On D-day, the allies had amphibious tanks that didn't work. In Vietnam, the newly-introduced M16 was stupidly issued without cleaning kits; you can guess what happened.
Personally, I think Sec. Rumsfeld has done more to drag the U.S. armed forces into a new era, kicking and screaming, than anyone gives him credit for. And while this resignation may be politically efficacious, I for one am disappointed to see him go.
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