I think my next job should be Secretary of Defense. I can act as tough as I want, and if I make a mistake, I don't have to accept responsibility.
I really don't understand why the President is sticking by Donald Rumsfeld, when it is pretty obvious that he failed to deal with this scandal until it was too late. In my book, that's incompetence. Presidents have fired other cabinet secretaries for less. Heck, Paul O'Neil was dropped simply because he didn't follow the President's economic plan. I don't remember anyone being tortured under O'Neils watch at Treasury let alone murder.
I think this shows that the President is more concerned with people's loyalty to him than with any sense of right and wrong.
So much for restoring integrity to the White House. Bush makes Clinton look like a Boy Scout.
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Posted by: The Best 777 Online Casino at June 11, 2004 11:31 PMMark wrote:
"I think they're just waiting for the release of the "worst" photos and video. Then, once the worst is over, Rummy resigns and takes full blame for everything."
That sounds right to me also. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I guess either way (resign now or resign later), it reflects well on Rumsfeld for those who understand what he's done.
If he stays on and if only junior officers are held accountable for this and if Americans accept that outcome as satisfactory, then we have become a different country from the one that nurtured me.
dorsano -
My belief (and I'd bet money on it if it could be proven definitively) is that Karl Rove will pressure the president to pressure Rummy to resign. I think they're just waiting for the release of the "worst" photos and video. Then, once the worst is over, Rummy resigns and takes full blame for everything.
Rove is the brains, remember, but Rove's career is tied 100% to the president's. If Bush goes down, Rove goes down hard. Rove will not allow that to happen - he will sacrifice anyone and everyone in order to save the president. Hell, he's probably the one fueling the rumors about replacing Cheney, just so Bush will feel the pressure to choose someone more likable in the polls.
In any case, Rove is probably going to take the risk that Rumsfeld's departure will do less damage to Bush than keeping Rummy on. A resignation will be the best out, as it means Bush has to take no public action and Rumsfeld can carry the blame with him out of the WH. But they have to wait for the worst to be released, because if more comes out after Rumsfeld is gone, it can still be attached to Bush in the public's eye. Once the worst is out, and Rummy has it all attached to him, he can carry it out of the admin with him. Scandal over.
It is still a big risk because Bush has so clearly stated that he supports the secretary. This will look like a major flip-flop and will also be public enough to make people wonder about Bush's ability to make important decisions. But that far outweighs the risk of keeping Rumsfeld around once the new footage is released - and I am sure that the worst we will see is child sodomy and abuse. That kind of crime is so heinous that keeping that albatross around Rumsfeld's neck, and thus around Bush's, is nearly a guaranteed defeat.
Posted by: Mark Kittel at May 11, 2004 08:25 AMIn my opinion, Rumsfeld has morphed from being extremely competent into being extremely arrogant and has now slipped into blindness.
We owe him a huge (perhaps an unpayable debt) for his initial policy in Afganistan. But it has been down hill ever since.
Somehow, from somewhere, these soldiers have gotten the impression that this god aweful behavior was permissable and even appropriate and ulitmately, the responsibility for that impression lies with Rumsfeld (if not with our fearless leader himself).
But that fact aside - no matter what graditude one feels to Rumsfeld - if we have any chance of showing the world that we take this torture seriously, Rumsfeld needs to go -- and if he is in any way still the man that he started as, he will choose to leave on his own.
Posted by: dorsano at May 11, 2004 01:46 AM