Wow....Rumsfeld, worst SECDEF evah is out. A primary architect of the Mess O'Potamian strategery is hist-ory. Well, it's start. Interesting that the Bob Gates, a fringe Iran-Contra player and protege of Daddy Bush and Brent Scowcroft is being brought in to take the SECDEF job.
Once again, Daddy is cleaning up Junior's mess. It's a shame that Incurious George insted of just failing at some bullshit business venture failed at something as deadly as a war that now has to be cleaned up. Tweety asked Andrea Mitchell rhetorically "How do you" (speaking of Bush) "roll this back?" I guess we're seeing the first attempt.
Rumsfeld and Cheney were extremely dismissive for the last six years of the role of CIA in American foreign policy, to the point of emasculating it by setting up DoD intel and policy shops to burnish the intel for the invasion of Iraq. Gates is a really intersting choice in light of that aspect of the war alone.
I have to wonder how long the NeoCon surrounding Rumsfeld at DoD will last. My bet? There are some senior officers who are helping them pack their offices today and tossing their shit out into the Pentagon parking lot for them as I write this (Doug Feith).
I also suspect we are seeing the final week of the vaunted "force transformation" bullshit that Rumsfeld was so fond of. Gates has the unenviable task of trying to keep the sides of the Pentagon from collapsing after six years of Rumsfeld and his imperious foolishness. The time at DoD for "change for the sake of change" is over for a while, I suspect.
I also wonder if Cheney is now moved off to become a more "traditional" Vice-President, while Daddy Bush quietly moves his players in to take over the final two years of Juniors Failed Experiment?
posted by Jo Fish on 11.08.06 at 02:06 PM
Comments:
Cut-n-Runsfeld
posted by: bolts on 11.08.06 at 02:53 PM [permalink]
I've had a feeling for several years now that Rumsfeld was actually right about the "transformation" thing. The army built to win WWII, and to fight off the Russians in the Fulda Gap is not very effective in 21st century warfare, as we have seen. For the time being division-sized forces are too bulky and slow to fight 3r and 4th generation wars. We could make good use of reinforced battalions and demi-brigades, but bad news - we'll need fewer generals. Ut oh.
I think we do need forces that can maneuver and react faster ("agile" as Rumsfeld defined them.) Despite my original misgivings, the Strykers seem to be pretty effective. Unfortunately we can't afford them now.
I also think brand spanking new super duper neato stealth fighters like the F-22 , at - what is it? $3 Billion a copy or some such ridiculous figure? - aren't needed. Tough luck for the zoomies, but we may not be fighting air superiority wars for a while.
Somebody has to explain that if we're gonna have all this very expensive high tech equipment then we need to get some more cash in the till, and not just from the multi-millionaires. The corporations are just going to have to learn to be good citizens, too.
Dumping Rumsfeld is a great idea, but it's no better now than it was two years ago or two days ago. Bush delayed an important decision in the war just to benefit his political party. That's playing politics with soldiers' lives and the safety of this country. Bush and the whole GOP should be ashamed of that.
Rumsfeld resign? I think at this point, the only thing for him is ritual suicide.
posted by: Tony on 11.09.06 at 05:00 PM [permalink]
