Posted on 12/06/2006 2:06:31 PM PST by Sabramerican
JOHN Bolton's resignation as the American ambassador to the United Nations makes it official: The Bush administration is now drifting idly toward a mixture of centrism and impotence.
In less than a month, two of President Bush's stronger and more independent aides - Donald Rumsfeld and Bolton - have been dispatched. Rumsfeld's designated successor, former CIA head Robert Gates, is a leading member of the Beltway's permanent bureaucracy.
The administration seems to be waiting for the Baker-Hamilton commission of old Washington hands to dictate U.S. policy on Iraq. Leaks from the commission suggest it will recommend a gradual U.S. withdrawal camouflaged by negotiations with Iran and Syria over a new Mideast grand bargain.
All of this feeds an exaggerated defeatism in the United States over Iraq.
.....
Rumsfeld's abrupt firing was an act of flagrant disloyalty to a loyal subordinate. The defense secretary had made his share of mistakes - notably, his failure to crush looting immediately after the fall of Baghdad - but he had followed the president's policy faithfully.
.......
We don't know for certain the reasons for Bolton's departure: Either the White House wasn't prepared to fight for him, or he was no longer prepared to lend his voice to the diplomatic charade over Iran and North Korea. Either way, his departure demonstrates timidity on the administration's part. The net result will be that Bush has one less loyal subordinate in the shrinking ranks of his own administration.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
God Bless President Bush,
God Bless our fighting heroes.
God Bless America
BUMP to your post, AmeriBrit!
Maybe..........JUST MAYBE..........some of these mission bashers have consciences and will start to understand what they are really doing here.
God bless you, AmeriBrit, and wrap His arms of love around you. Thank you for your sacrifice. Your son is a HERO..........and so are you.
Don't let any of these BOZOS diminish your understanding of that fact.
It used to be that Freeper discussions about W where a lot like a praise service. Now the Freepers break out into a brawl. Well, the Freepers haven't changed and no there aren't a lot of new trolls loitering around here. Lets face it, our administration has HUGH problems and they have painted themselves into a corner.
It is disingenuous, and ignoring Rummy's own desire, IMO....
btw, are you a retread? You're an awfully recent sign on to be talking about what Freeper discussions 'used to be.'
Oh Peach, please please stay. Don't leave me here in this place! LOL
The angry malcontents seem to be running the show these days (with a lot of help from their troll colleagues).
It's tough to have to fight against an angry current on a supposedly rational conservative forum....
Ok. That they're upset is one thing. It's not ok to post flat wrong reasons why he's gone and beat the President about the head, mercilessly, for it. That's my problem with it.
I'm the one who in first grade defended the little boy who spoke with a strong lisp.
At the time I was on crutches due to a medical condition. The boys gathered around this one boy and taunted him for something that wasn't his fault. I hobbled in between them and said, "You either stop that or else I'm going to make you sorry you didn't". Then a boy walked by who wasn't involved in the scene and said "You'd better do what she says, or she'll hit you with her crutch"! They all melted away. It was hilarious.
I say this to say, I'm sorry, I can't sit idly by while the President is repeatedly attacked unfairly, no matter who does it or why.
I also believe he deserves much more than what was coming his way from the haters in congress.
That Rumsfeld was spared one moment of having look upon that hateful face of her heinous......priceless!
Borrowing from Scripture...
To whom (what forum) shall we go?
So we won't end up hurting ourselves by losing all our special ones that we have found...here...
The person we are talking about has not gone around attacking the President
Please do not lump in into the Bush Bashing category .. it's not fair
We will see, but I am afraid you are right.
ALL of us wanted Rummy to stay.
But the extremist, angry pseudo-cons joined forces with the insane left and the RATS took control of Congress.
It is under these circumstances, knowing the awful abuse that this honorable man would have to endure being attacked by the enemy within, that we now understand why BOTH RUMSFELD and BUSH AGREED that he needed to resign.
There are too many on this forum who are in essence lying about what happened and using it as a club to beat up the President with. It is those people to whom I object.
A lot of folks here have turned into FRINO's.
No not that. I suppose he's a good sort. Take Clinton for example. The guy you'd like to have over for a BBQ because he'd be a riot but not the guy you want running the country. I see Bush as the same sort in a way. And nobody flame me for this but I see Bush sort of like my grandmother saw Carter. Too good of a man to be President. Now was that true? Perhaps back when he was President. That's sort of how I'd rank Bush. A good man, but perhaps too willing to believe those around him
See Harriet Miers for the most striking example.
I'd rather have Harriet Miers as a Supreme Court Justice than some hack who doesn't recognize the separation of powers between the federal government and the states. Justice Thomas is still the only Justice who regularly recognizes this, even though he does sway at times. I don't know how Miers would rule on things but I know how Alito and Roberts rule and I would have rather taken an unknown over those two.
Well put, STARWISE.
While sliding and skidding to work this morning I heard Fox news on the radio talking about growing criticism from both sides of the aisle of many points in the Half-Baked Ham report.
McCain wants more troops; Leftist 'Rats want a firm timetable; many don't like the recommendation to "work with" Syria and Iran who are the de facto enemies in this war.
The much-applauded Half-Baked Ham report is looking more and more like a dog's breakfast.
Mr. President, Sh!tcan it!!
I believe the Surrender Report will be relegated to the circular file under the desk. If ever any 'study' was a waste, this one is......
I am with Mo1 in the respect that I HATE that the DEMS and media made it so difficult for Rummy to do his job...that both he and Pres. Bush obviously came to the conclusion that this might be best.
I have thought since the day of the announcement that the reason Rummy resigned, was because after finding out the House was changed to Dem control....he would be constantly called in for hearings and investigations..which would make his job as DOD impossible.
I think Pres. Bush wanted to spare him the necessity of having to do both jobs..
My position on the night we crossed over the border into Iraq was that it was a rash action, taken precipitously in order for the administration to capitialize on the war fever sweeping the country at the time, and that it could very well come back to bite us in the ass. My posts on FR at the time indicate as much.
I thought the Saudis or the mullahs in Iran or the Syrians were better targets for action than was Saddam, but that overall the best strategy was to work from Afghanistan to crush al-Qaeda, and, while keeping the pressure on the House of Saud, the Shiite mullahs and the Baathists in Syria, as well as Saddam, let the pot boil until we could bring more of the world on-board in support of our actions in the region.
Once we were in Iraq, I wanted us to win. Again, all my posts indicate same. I take no satisfaction in seeing the debacle this rash and unnecessary action has become.
As for the "intelligence" on a Iraqi "nuclear weapons," I never believed that was the true motivator for Bush and his team. As Paul Wolfowitz more or less admitted later, the WMD argument was just the public justification for a private strategy composed of elements that were deemed unfit for public airing. Another huge mistake.
If GWB really believed the WMD stuff, all he had to do was pound his desk mightily and insist that Tenet bring him irrefutable proof of the program's existence, along with a fool-proof plan for capturing the evidence as soon as troops were on the ground in Iraq. He didn't do that because he didn't want anything to sidetrack his plans for invasion.
GWB had personal reasons for going after Saddam. He believed those reasons dovetailed nicely with the national interest. He was wrong.
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