Cleveland Plain Dealer: Enough of Rumsfeld

Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial
Enough of Rumsfeld
Friday, May 07, 2004

It is time for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to prepare the final document of a long and sometimes illustrious public career: his letter of resignation. Rumsfeld, in his general lack of foresight in planning for the Iraq occupation and in his specific inability to comprehend the incalculable damage wrought by the inexcusable behavior of American troops at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison, has failed his country, the military forces he oversees, and the president he serves.

He has failed his country because he insisted on minimal numbers of occupation forces even when it became obvious that many of Saddam Hussein's loyal forces had melted into Iraqi society to form an insurgent force. That blind spot has hamstrung this nation in the massive tasks of pacification and democratization that President George W. Bush has set before it.

He has failed America's men and women in uniform by thus placing them, many insufficiently trained and improperly equipped, in a situation far more dangerous than it had to have been. Each day some of their number pay the ultimate price, in part because of his miscalculation. And he has failed them by not making clear, down the chain of command that starts at his desk, the standards of behavior that this nation demands of even the most lowly private soldier in its services.

Finally, he has failed his president by allowing him to be left unaware of the enormity of the problem festering in Abu Ghraib. Whether through arrogance or ignorance, Rumsfeld apparently failed to comprehend the impact that such misconduct would have on this nation's image throughout the Islamic world. How is the United States to claim any moral superiority to the criminal administration it deposed, when its own soldiers' depravity is laid out for the world to revile?
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PD