[Vision2020] Army Times Editorial - Time for Rumsfeld to Go

[Tom Hansen]

>From the Army Times at www.ArmyTimes.com (subscription required) -

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Editorial
Time for Rumsfeld to go

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld - 
 
"So long as our government requires the backing of an aroused and informed
public opinion ... it is necessary to tell the hard bruising truth."

That statement was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning war correspondent
Marguerite Higgins more than a half-century ago during the Korean War. 

But until recently, the "hard bruising" truth about the Iraq war has been
difficult to come by from leaders in Washington. 

One rosy reassurance after another has been handed down by President Bush,
Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: "mission
accomplished," the insurgency is "in its last throes," and "back off," we
know what we're doing, are a few choice examples.

Military leaders generally toed the line, although a few retired generals
eventually spoke out from the safety of the sidelines, inciting criticism
equally from anti-war types, who thought they should have spoken out while
still in uniform, and pro-war foes, who thought the generals should have
kept their critiques behind closed doors.

Now, however, a new chorus of criticism is beginning to resonate.
Active-duty military leaders are starting to voice misgivings about the
war's planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.

Army Gen. John Abizaid, chief of U.S. Central Command, told a Senate Armed
Services Committee in September: "I believe that the sectarian violence is
probably as bad as I've seen it ... and that if not stopped, it is possible
that Iraq could move towards civil war."

Last week, someone leaked to The New York Times a Central Command briefing
slide showing an assessment that the civil conflict in Iraq now borders on
"critical" and has been sliding toward "chaos" for most of the past year.
The strategy in Iraq has been to train an Iraqi army and police force that
could gradually take over for U.S. troops in providing for the security of
their new government and their nation.

But despite the best efforts of American trainers, the problem of molding a
viciously sectarian population into anything resembling a force for national
unity has become a losing proposition.

For two years, American sergeants, captains and majors training the Iraqis
have told their bosses that Iraqi troops have no sense of national identity,
are only in it for the money, don't show up for duty and cannot sustain
themselves.

Meanwhile, colonels and generals have asked their bosses for more troops.
Service chiefs have asked for more money. 

And all along, Rumsfeld has assured us that things are well in hand. 

Now, the president says he'll stick with Rumsfeld for the balance of his
term in the White House. 

This is a mistake. It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think
Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to
break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is
losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads.

These officers have been loyal public promoters of a war policy many
privately feared would fail. They have kept their counsel private, adhering
to more than two centuries of American tradition of subordination of the
military to civilian authority.

And although that tradition, and the officers' deep sense of honor, prevent
them from saying this publicly, more and more of them believe it. 

Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the
troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed,
and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our
failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear
its brunt.

This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov.
7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: 

Donald Rumsfeld must go.

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Seeya at the polls, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho


"Patriotism is not a short and frenzied outburst of emotion but the tranquil
and steady dedication of a lifetime." 

--Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.