Militarily, he has shifted the emphasis to the two Stans and away from Iraq, where we never should have been.
That's what Rumsfeld wanted to do and got fired for. I don't know if replacing Bush with Rummy is progress.
<<< On Nov. 6, 2006, a day before the midterm elections, Rumsfeld sent a memo to the White House. In the memo Rumsfeld acknowledged, "Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough." The rest of his memo sounded very much like the emerging troop-drawdown conclusions of the Iraq Study Group report.
The first 80 percent of Rumsfeld's memo addressed "Illustrative Options," including his preferred—or "above the line"—options like "an accelerated drawdown of U.S. bases…to five by July 2007" and withdrawal of U.S. forces "from vulnerable positions—cities, patrolling, etc….so the Iraqis know they have to pull up their socks, step up and take responsibility for their country."
Finally, Rumsfeld had begun to listen to his generals and others who knew which end was up.
The hurdle? Bush and Cheney were not about to follow Rumsfeld's example in going wobbly. Like Robert McNamara at a similar juncture during Vietnam, Rumsfeld had to be let go before he caused a president to "lose a war." >>>
counterpunch.org
Tom |
