Saturday, April 29, 2006

Rumsfeld is an old fossil

...and incompetent fossil, at that.

Watching America: (full article)

"This Vietnam generation once pledged, as Colin Powell wrote in his memoirs: 'If we come into leadership positions we will never be complicit in a half-baked war for half-baked reasons.' Thus the Powell doctrine describes going to war only if it is carried out with a clear goal, an exit strategy, with overwhelming force and as a last resort.

No one fought this doctrine as vehemently as Rumsfeld. Since entering office, he has replaced soldiers with technology, and heavy artillery with computer-guided missiles. He conducted a high-tech air war in Afghanistan and let Osama bin Laden escape on the ground. He made Iraq a showplace for his grand strategy of 'military transformation,' overlooking the fact that computers cannot occupy territory. Not least, the shortage of troops in Iraq allowed the rebellion to thrive. That his president had elevated freedom to a goal of the war didn't especially interest Rumsfeld. For him, any means was proper, including 'better interrogation methods.' Trapped in his self-confidence, he was deaf to the advice of his military subordinates. He saw it as his mission to cure the military of its Vietnam-era trauma. But instead, he reawakened the trauma. So, anyone that demands his resignation can do so for a whole menu of reasons. Rumsfeld symbolizes the brief moment of American hubris after the damage of the great terror attack. Today he seems like a fossil left over from those days."

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