Rumsfeld resigns
Before the Democratic Party enunciates or even considers a policy on Iraq. The argument that this is a necessary mea culpa, a necessary retreat comes up against the question: retreat to what? Every rearguard action has a fallback line of defense prepared. Since the Democrats have not indicated where they want the retreat to stop, and there is no indication that the President has prepared a fallback position the appropriate term isn't a rearguard action. Retreats without an endpoint have another name. They are called a rout.
There is no sense getting excited about Rumsfeld's resignation. It is but the first step on a long road to ... has anyone decided yet? Therefore the only rational thing to do is relax. Take a loaf of French bread and cut off two slices with a utility saw and make another mayo and peanut butter sandwich. Sooner or later the enemy is going to realize what the Guderian knew in 1940. That it doesn't matter how many men, tanks or forts are serried before you. If there is no mind in opposition, and no awareness of the need to set a mind in opposition, then the road to Paris is open. The bread is theirs. The saw is ours. And the sandwich is good.
In From the Cold profiles Rummy's replacement.
"Regarding Mr. Gates, he is a good man but the wrong one for the job. He spent most of his professional life at the CIA before retiring and becoming the President of Texas A&M University. Robert Gates certainly knows the intelligence end of military affairs, but his expertise ends there. Moreover, his management skills as DCI weren't particularly impressive, and as an analyst, he was part of a CIA team that consistently got it wrong on their assessments of the former Soviet Union. Gates strikes me as a easy confirmation, someone with no ties to the current Pentagon regime. That's probably a necessity in today's political climate, but that doesn't make Mr. Gates the right choice for DoD."
While I'm sure Robert Gates is an intelligent and competent man, he appears from his resume to be a placeholder for the job of Secretary of Defense. Someone to fill the chair until Nancy Pelosi, the President or someone can figure out what to do. How far to retreat. Whether ever to stop. There was never a Democratic policy on Iraq. And now that President Bush has apparently lost his political mandate, there is now an overwhelming endorsement for nothing. Time for another bite of that sandwich. It makes more sense than anything else.
posted by wretchardthecat at 11/08/2006 02:10:00 PM
27 Comments:
As I said long ago there are two options in the Mohammedan Wars, either War or Retreat.
We've not even been at War, and it was decided to be to tough, anyway.
It's time for Retreat.
What happens when the next "big attack" is outside the US?
Harden your hearts. This is where the rubber meets the road. But there's no sense getting stressed about it. Peanut butter is just fine.
I think the rout has been going on for some time: the Waziristan accords, the resurgence of the Taliban, Maliki's open defiance of the Administration's reasonable requests to take on the murderous Shia militias, Israel's loss to Hezbollah, the coming Nasrallah government of Lebanon, the spread of the Somali Taliban, Iran's confident pursuit of Nuclear weapons.
Our enemies around the world began to (re?)probe US weakness shortly after 9/11. They pushed and pushed and met no meaningful resistance. They watched the US Media and saw Bush's approval numbers and knew they could push further and further. This election opens the breach.
One thing that I am confident of at this point is that absent dramatic action (which there is no reason to expect) this rout will move much more quickly now. I think we may be startled by the speed and breadth of it. It may not be open violence against us (at first). Instead, we will see our interests in the middle east undermined. Worst of all we will see our few allies in that area turn to seek accommodation with our enemies at our expense.
I pray I am wrong.
We have asserted that Mr. Rumsfeld may be out, but the problems remain.
Mr. Rumsfeld is again serving his President by taking the fall for Iraq, a problem for America that likely would not have occurred had Mr. Rumsfeld's original post-war plan in 2003 been followed. Mr. Rumsfeld and Jay Garner, the retired general he appointed for this task, planned a very brief U.S. occupation and a swift turnover to an Iraqi provisional government, the same procedure so successfully employed in Afghanistan in 2001. Regrettably, the White House staff and L. Paul Bremer intervened and the rest is a sad and frustrating history.
We are not very impressed with Mr. Gates. Happily, Mr. Rumsfeld was able to get much of his transformation agenda in place.
Mr. Bush has bought himself a little time. But the serious problems are not going away. A year from now, he will wish he had Mr. Rumsfeld back.
Westhawk
Well I gues this means the logical choice for the next SOD Thomas Barnett!
http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/
http://www.amazon.com/Pentagons-New-Map-Twenty-first-Century/dp/0425202399/sr=8-1/qid=1163026511/ref=sr_1_1/002-9036978-9332069?ie=UTF8&s=books
We have never seen Bush operate with a Congress in the opposition party's hands. For his entire tenure so far, his party has been in partial or complete control.
I think what we are going to see are jawdropping concessions to the Democrats. Remember how Bush, early in his first term, had his arm around Teddy Kennedy yukking it up as he agreed to a massive increase in education spending?
Honestly, can someone name something that they think Bush will actually stand firm on and deny the Democrats?
I predict that by the time he leaves in two years he will have nearly as low popularity ratings with Republicans as he ever has had with Democrats. We are going to be aghast at how he caves to them.
I think the truth is that at heart George Bush has never really been a conservative. He's been a "compassionate conservative,", i.e., a right-leaning liberal.
The Democrats didn't really know it, but they actually swept both houses of Congress AND the Presidency yesterday, because Bush is going to turn out to be a sort of Souter in the White House for the last two years.
«««««« mini---.---spam »»»»»»
ETNIC SEPARATISM OF NATIVES
--- Don't be Idiots!!!
--- The way to go... it isn't 'lick-the-boots' to the Majority of the Europeans!
--- The way to go... it is 'make war' against the White Parasite... i.e., the ETHNIC SEPARATISM:
(... before being too late...)
-1- a space (50%) of Total Competition (for Globalization-Lovers);
-2- another space (50%) of Natural Reserve: for the preservation of Natives Ethnic Identity.
{ see: 50-separatism-50 }
NOTE 1: The Space of Total Competition (50%)... will be for the Europeans (the majority: i.e., White Parasite)... that... want to be in the Parasite-Enjoy ... i.e.:
-1- they claim to enjoy immigrant servile labour at 'price of rain';
-2- they claim to enjoy the existence of persons to pay the retirement pension [ in spite of... they doesn't make a Society where exist Demographic Renewal!!! ]
NOTE 2: The Space of Natural Reserve (50%)... will be for the Europeans (a minority)... whom they intend to be in the Planet - with dignity, courage and determination - fighting for the Survival of his Ethnic Identity.
Cruiser,
Michael Yon confirms your view as you probably know.
He sees the NATO troops getting slaughtered next year in Afghanistan if the course is not changed.
---
Westhawk confirms my long held opinion that it was letting State take over that made victory impossible.
---
A very sad story about Michael Steele
Hamas ends ceasefire, threatens America: "BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip — Hamas' supreme leader on Wednesday called off a cease-fire with Israel and the group's military wing threatened to attack Americans after 18 members of a family, including eight children, were killed in an Israeli artillery barrage on a densely populated neighborhood." (Fox)
So it begins. No more fear of the lion. Trailing blood in the water like a dying animal. Time for another bite of that sandwich.
Please do not tell me you want a Nutella sandwich?
link
:-(
George Bush is what is commonly known in politics as a Rockefeller Republican Rockefeller Republican
Over the Orwellian years we have passed through during the ascent of PC Rochefeller Republicans who were reviled during the upsurge in conservatism morphed into "Compassionate Conservatives"
Democrats did the same thing after very heavy discussions in the late 1970's about using the word socalist democrat, so they decided on "Progressives" as their descriptive. See "Destroying Democracy:How the Government Funds Partisan Politics".
Destroying Democracy
As a bonus in this 1986 publication it mentions ACORN as a prime destroyer. Now ACORN was just found last week manufacturing 35,000 false voter registrations so the book is good. It gives names and dates of meetings on the discussion of using "Progressives" as opposed to socialists. It's well worth reading today.
A comment I heard today from a caller on a talk radio program is that he was very disappointed when during an interview Pres Bush said he did not plan for the Worst Case Scenario in the war on terror.
The planning for the Worst Case Scenario has been done; it's in the can, or rather, in the silo. The execution simply involves a Presidental phone call and then a number of USAF and/or USN officers turn a couple of keys in pairs and the problem gets solved in the next 30 min.
Mind you, that approach might well cause problems that are worse, at least in the short term. But that option is always there - and I have little doubt that if Iraq is "Lost" that it will become necessary in the long term. Then again, in the long term, we are all dead.
And relative to Pres Bush caving in to the Dems: It will no doubt look like that, but it will be a real question as to whether he merely is caving or giving them enough rope to hang themselves. Or Both.
Relax, W sez, take another bite of the PB sandwich. OK.
I just posted a report card on GWBs third mid-term, and IMO Rummy should have gone a year ago, even though I basically agree with westhawk. But timidity and tentiveness have ruled the WH too long, so I suspect mark may have made an excellent point. If he fails to grow his set of missing gonads, GWB is going to have a long, slow, dreadful fourth bi-annual (and final) term.
Cheers. Was that the nutty-blend? It's delicious!
So Rumsfeld Resigning is like crossing the Meuse at Sedan - the the recovery before the sickle cut slices?
Lets hope we don't halt before Dunkirke.
Sorry 49er:
About that Sandwich:
I figured GWB's Nuts had to be put to SOME use.
Wretchard said . . .
The argument that this is a necessary mea culpa, a necessary retreat comes up against the question: retreat to what? Every rearguard action has a fallback line of defense prepared.
In debates with drinking buddies and old colleagues back in '02-03 I used to ask: "What if we fail in Iraq? What if they don't take to democracy, or the Shiite Clerics take control?" Relax, I was assured, it will be a "cakewalk" and once we're there we'll just "have to get it right." Nope, no fallback plan, there. No idea what to do once our liberal plans of socially engineering failed. We've handed power over to the Shiite Islamofascists and called it victory. I don't think it's peanut butter we're knee deep in.
Maybe we should just pull back to Kurdistan and let the Sunni and Shiite Islamicists slaughter themselves into mutual destruction or a hard learned state of tolerance and peace. It's a suggestion. The other option is to stay the course and supply massive welfare and arms to our Shiite enemies while they laugh behind our backs and plant IEDs for our troops.
Well said, doug. Cheers.
Rumsfeld is arguably the most widely accomplished member of Bush's team of Vulcans. From memory from "The Rise of Vulcans" Rummy was CEO of 2 Fortune 500 companies, which is usually an admired status. He was in Naval Reserve for 20 years, I think as a Flight Instructor. In the mid-70's, he was the youngest SecDef in our history. He comes back, in his late Sixties, from obvious comfortable retirement, to serve his country. He wins two wars in world-historic speed, he enforces a CEO-grip on the fat military bureacracy, and he looks you in the eye and speaks the truth.
Quick - give us an example of somebody as accomplished as Sec. Rumsfeld.
Ahh, maybe it's just me, I just loves the way he gives press conferences.
He looks like he's thinking about kicking your ass in the next split second. I like that look.
We're gonna miss him when he's gone. This whole Baker/oldhead thing is not encouraging.
And it's not like Rummy didn't try to resign a couple of times before. He stayed and did his duty, and made it look like fun.
dr,
"...either War or Retreat."
I've long put it the choice really is "Slaughter or Surrender." Surrender leads to (our) slaughter, but folks don't want to digest that.
'What happens when the next "big attack" is outside the US?'
That, I think, is the jihadis next good move. It will lead to complete and final Euro-surrender, thereby allowing the jihadis to consolidate for the trip across the Atlantic. They can be fairly certain that we will not come to the aid of their victim country so long as the Dhimms have the grip on the U.S. government they now have. After Euro-surrender, they will ratchet the oil spiggots shut.
Restrict Euro-immigration (except Italy, Poland and East Euro) NOW. Let them (West Euro) "stand up"...if it can.
I like Nutella sandwiches. My Wife is German. Lotsa Nutella in da house!
Will the jihadis tear down Stonehenge?
The mistake was in thinking a bomb was a weapon. Bombs are nothing. Only images and words are weapons. Explosives don't even make a sound when they are not reported. Mass murder doesn't even exist when it is not reported. Perfidy is nothing if it tricked out as high principle. That's the truth isn't it Winston? Here in Room 101.
Tony said...
He [Rumsfeld] wins two wars in world-historic speed, he enforces a CEO-grip on the fat military bureacracy, and he looks you in the eye and speaks the truth.
Nonsense. Afghanistan was Cofer Black's brilliant plan and he was CIA (now Blackwater). Infinite Justice (Enduring Freedom) was special ops, Northern Alliance and the Air Force -- the Pentagon had nothing on the shelf for such a war and deferred to CIA. Rummy's effort in Afganistan was to lead the press conferences and, of course, to muff Tora Bora. That was the Pentagon part of the game.
Operation Iraqi Freedom ain't concluded yet, if you haven't noticed, and if you call this "world historic speed" then I'm not sure what you'd call Desert Storm.
Rummy never lived up to hype. There's damn good reasons he was so hated at Searle for his tremendous hubris and duplicity. I know because my cousin worked with him in the 80s.
Tony,
A good recap of Rumsfeld highpoints; I always liked those press conferences too.
The press hates a guy who has actually done stuff in life; by middle age press men and women have got to be a bit burned out on reporting what other people - that is, everybody but them - do. They realize that for all their running around and whispered confidences and scribblings they are not really doing anything in life; they hate their subjects.
Anyway, did you know that Mr and Mrs Rumsfeld were great friends of Sammy Davis, Jr? I guess Rumsfeld was the unofficial Nixon ambassador to the Hollywood set...long ago. Cheers.
Roland was a warrior from the Land of the Midnight Sun
With a Thompson gun for hire, fighting to be done
The deal was made in Denmark on a dark and stormy day
So he set out for Biafra to join the bloody fray
Through sixty-six and seven they fought the Congo war
With their fingers on their triggers, knee-deep in gore
For days and nights they battled the Bantu to their knees
They killed to earn their living and to help out the Congolese
Roland the Thompson gunner...
His comrades fought beside him - Van Owen and the rest
But of all the Thompson gunners, Roland was the best
So the CIA decided they wanted Roland dead
That son-of-a-bitch Van Owen blew off Roland's head
Roland the headless Thompson gunner
Norway's bravest son
Time, time, time
For another peaceful war
But time stands still for Roland
Til he evens up the score
They can still see his headless body stalking through the night
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun
In the muzzle flash of Roland's Thompson gun
Roland searched the continent for the man who'd done him in
He found him in Mombassa in a barroom drinking gin
Roland aimed his Thompson gun - he didn't say a word
But he blew Van Owen's body from there to Johannesburg
Roland the headless Thompson gunner...
The eternal Thompson gunner
still wandering through the night
Now it's ten years later but he still keeps up the fight
In Ireland, in Lebanon, in Palestine and Berkeley
Patty Hearst heard the burst of Roland's Thompson gun and bought it.
- In Memory of SecDef Rummy
...and WZ, I am sure, doesn't mind the turnin' in his grave....
Wretchard,
"The mistake was in thinking a bomb was a weapon. Bombs are nothing."
Have you run that one past Zarqawi?...or those Hamas honchos the IDF rocketed off bicycles, out of wheelchairs and in their moving cars a couple years back?
On the wall of one of the field houses at the rifle range at Quantico was this quote from Gunnery Sergeant Carlos Hathcock: "There is nothing on the battlefield so deadly as one well-aimed round." That's the lesson of Zarqawi and the Hamas honchos.
Images and words are weapons in the battle to make your enemy surrender without having to fight the fight, which, of course, is preferrable to fighting the fight. It is one of the reasons our enemies (the jihadis and the Marxists) hide so hard.
Reocon,
As a rule I don't bicker, since we wouldn't bicker if we were standing in some smoky foreign bar somewhere, unknown to one another, armed or not, in some unpatrolled night outside the reach of cops. We'd be nice to each other, under those circumstances.
So, just to keep the conversation going, why don't you tell us why this latent, in-place, ready-to-rock military capability that Rummy got credit for didn't roll over Afghanistan in the 90's? We were stomping on the Serbs like a high-heeled stripper over a helpless drunk. But we could only spare one night's multi-hundred-million-dollar Cruise missile spree on our actual enemies.
No, wait, I got down in the weeds. I'd really just respectfully ask you to point us to one or two other military campaigns that overcame equally formidable enemies / positions in as short an amount of time.
Give us a military campaign comparable to OEF or OIF. When you do, I'll accept you dissin' my man Rummy.
Gen. Powell was supposed to figure out all the nation-building business after our military did its job. Instead, he and his dummy Armitage undermined our country's faith in their government by initiating the false but inflammatory "Plame scandal."
Rummy was just the code-named SecDef, originally called the American Secretary of War. He did his job nobly.
One element of hope I would offer - A retreat does not necessarily require a fallback position if it is a Parthian retreat.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parthian_shot
It's worth remembering that the Bush administration is not the sort to confide its secrets to everyone the way certain earlier administrations were so it is entirely possible that their plan involves Mr. Rumsfeld being moved into another position at a more opportune time. Just a thought.
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