Does Rummy want to spend more time with his family? Or, is he a bone tossed to the military brass and Republican leadership?
Rumsfeld has been wrong for America, but eloquently so. I have grudgingly admired his lyrical sarcasm, and at moments, his candidness. This guy's thinking has been more transparent than anyone else sitting at the round table in Bush's war room. He has also served as a perfect foil. Personally, I will be sorry to see him go. That said, if this administration has to be taken down for what it has done to America - as I am convinced it should - I shouldn't quarrel if my favorites are peeled away first.
Has Vigilante ever asked a question for which he doesn't have an anser?
ReplyDeleteFrom the L.A. Times Editorial this morning, is this take-away quote:
ReplyDeleteWhen Bush took office, his diplomatic and national security team of Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Rumsfeld exuded a sense of seasoned competence. Yet they presided over a faith-based policymaking that has proved disastrous to the national interest.
Crossposting on Rummy's Bully Pulpit:
ReplyDeleteOnce again, Republicans display their (seemingly) congenital inability to accept any responsibility for their (disastrous) actions which have so harmed our country internationally and domestically. Searching for someone to blame for the "Thumping" delivered by voters on Tuesday to the Republicans, Rummy blamed the voters' growing unhappiness with the Iraq war (which, you remember Dear Reader, was initiated so that "W", the Great "Decider"/Imposter, could reign as a "War President") on the stupidity of the American people, stating yesterday, that the Iraq war is "too complex" and not "understood" by we ignoramuses. There they go again: projecting their pathology onto us.
Once again, Rumsfeld's rules seem to be wrong - The Defense Secretary's guide to govern by notes that "it's easier to get into something than it is to get out."
ReplyDeleteNot so. He'll ride off into the sunset without confirmation hearings, without an agenda and without thanks - at least from this quarter.
Rumsfeld`s apparently going to adjust easily . He is thinking of introducing torture to civilian life now.
ReplyDeleteVigilante,
ReplyDeleteWas just watching BBC interviewing an adviser to Bush...Extraordinary turnaround, from brazen arrogance to almost dog-like humility with no in-between; insisting that Bush had offered the ultimate olive branch: work in a bipartisan way as if the word bipartisan is owned by Bush (heck, it was the impression I got from the adviser's answer); don't know but this 180° sudden turnaround and the endless use of that one word, bipartisan reminds me of a Karl Rove tactic...
I agree that Bush has no choice but to offer the olive branch but there's something funny with the way it's being flaunted about. Hmmm... maybe I'm not used to neo cons being so amazingly conciliatory so fast and so much.
After his announcement, didn't you love the Bush push that he always gives to guests in the oval office?
ReplyDeleteYou notice. by the way, that in interviews since the election, he still states that bipartisanship will continue to involve staying the course.
Emily, re your quote from the LA Times, I hope that the Democratic presidential hopefuls are not going to continue to make faith-based speeches to the masses. In church appearances, if you wish, but please consider that there are many non-believers with principles out here too, and we want to be included in your appreciated audience.
ReplyDeleteGood one, Skip. (I almost want to rescind all the bad things I've said about you. Well, one, maybe.)
ReplyDelete...seasoned INcompetence...
ReplyDeletePeople should be under no delusions as to the significance of Rumsfeld's departure. Five (5) secretaries of Defense presided over the Pentagon during the Vietnam War. And the war went on for five more years after 'Fog of War' McNamara was fired. The key to the mess of Mesopotania is the CIC, not the DoD.
ReplyDeleteGiven the situation in Iraq and the Shrub's recent statements that while he welcomes suggestions and comments on what to do there but that we are still going to win Gates should have told him to take that job and shove it. But I expect Daddy Bush talked him into at least trying to help pull his spoiled brat's butt out of fire. Given what the Shrub said a day or two before the election that Rummy was going no where I just do not believe them when they say this had been in the works. I believe this was less a tossed bone and more of an act or utter desperation. Rummy might be the fall guy for when the Democrats start investigating in 2007.
ReplyDeleteYou're on to something there, Beach Bum. Scapegoating Rumsfeld will be the first resort to 'bring us together'.
ReplyDeleteI don`t see anywhere that the Dems are going to rescind all the authoritarian /fascist legislation , taking away of rights, that has been done the last few years.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a difference between these groups I fail to see it.
The farce of an election was made to blow off steam for the proles.
The same corporate Masters control the Dems and Repubs.
Clever, M.D.!
ReplyDeleteRecidivist, You make a good point.
But let's acknowledge that Sec. of Defense-select Gates represents an infusion of of a grown-up into Bush's cabinet of infantile militarists and superannuated cold warriors. He's a veteran of the first Bush administration and the Persian Gulf War, a representative realist long eschewed by Shrub. Gates and his peers, Brent Scowcroft and James Baker, wisely advised Daddy Bush not to press on to Baghdad for fear of destabilizing Iraq. Hope may be on its way.
Star A.D.:
ReplyDeleteRather than listening to the departing Clinton administration and national security experts about the threat of Al Qaeda, Rumsfeld's priority was an expensive missile defense system that can be easily tricked. About $50 billion was spent during Rumsfeld's regime, and still it's not a reliable weapon. I'm opposed to spending my family's share on useless gadgets. Kindly put it toward stem cell research, which has a remote chance of discovering something useful.
I hold no sympathy for Rumsfeld. Had he really been the dedicated Defense secretary he aspired to be, he would have disagreed when the president wanted to invade Iraq. The proper response would have been, "Let's finish the job we started in Afghanistan." Rumsfeld's resignation is a step toward healing the massive wounds he and the rest of the Bush administration have inflicted on our military and their families, not to mention our foreign policy.
ReplyDelete