| Tuesday, March 21, 2006 |
| The competency question: Donald Rumsfeld |
Backtracking a bit, with a hat tip to the Daily Kos, a retired Army major general who was in charge of training Iraqi forces from 2003 to 2004, shellacks Defense Secretary Rumsfeld ... for incompetence. Paul D. Eaton, Ret., charges that Rumsfeld has bullied and cowed the uniformed military brass, starting with Tommy Franks and Richard Myers, and continuing with the current Joint Chiefs chair, Peter Pace (Pace has shown sparks of independence, including on the issue of mistreatment of prisoners and the state of war in Iraq, only to back down later...) He says Rummy has enforced a dangerous "groupthink" inside the Pentagon, and that his obsession with high-tech, low headcount military "transformation" has made Iraq a much more dangerous mission for U.S. troops. It's a scathing indictment, and one everyone should read all the way through. Here's just a sample:DURING World War II, American soldiers en route to Britain before D-Day were given a pamphlet on how to behave while awaiting the invasion. The most important quote in it was this: "It is impolite to criticize your host; it is militarily stupid to criticize your allies."
By that rule, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is not competent to lead our armed forces. First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called "old Europe" has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input.
In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down. What's sad is that because of the stubbornness of Mr. Bush, Rumsfeld is probably safe in his job until he himself chooses to leave.
Meanwhile, the latest droplet out of Iraq is the news that some six months before the war started -- in September of 2002 -- Iraq's foreign minister "turned states evidence" against the regime, telling the CIA, in part to collect $100,000, that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction.
Happy Tuesday.
Update: Dr. Rusty at the Jawa Report painfully, agonizingly, excruciatingly comes to the conclusion that it's time for Rumsfeld to go. On the other hand, he still thinks there's all sorts of good news coming out of Iraq! (Maybe I need to see some of your sources, Dr. R, because I just don't see it. People like Khalizad -- an honest broker as far as I've seen -- and Allawi, who ruled the place for god's sake, disagree with your attempt at rosying up the scenario.) It seems long past time for the right to admit that Iraq is a mess. You can't figure out how to fix what you won't admit is broken.
Tags: Iraq, War, Rumsfeld, Incompetence |
posted by JReid @ 8:06 AM   |
|
|
|
|
