Posted on 08/29/2006 11:29:58 AM PDT by meandog
HAMPTON--U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Davis, a Republican, hasn't ever agreed with Sen. Hillary Clinton on anything. But she is siding with the New York Democrat in calling for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.
"I've made no bones about it the last two years," the 1st District congresswoman told members of the Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Society of Military Comptrollers. "He's probably a nice guy, but I don't think he's a great secretary of defense."
Davis said she based her determination in part on Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq.
She pointed to his 2003 firing of Gen. Eric Shinseki. Before the war started, Shinseki, then the Army chief of staff, publicly said he believed that hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops would be needed in Iraq during the postwar period.
(Excerpt) Read more at fredericksburg.com ...
I guess I should add York, I haven't tinkered with my page in a long time. There's quite a number of Tennesseans I could put up... ;-)
Elvis may have been from Tupelo, but he was a self-declared Tennessean and Memphian. Had his unfortunate addictions and eating habits not caused his untimely death at 42, he was expressing a strong interest in running for Governor of our state as a Republican -- as was Sheriff Pusser. I have no doubt Elvis might've ended up as President had he been successful in that run (a damn sight better than a low-rent Bubba aping his act in the '90s). ;-)
An example of this in our military was the push to waste massive amounts of money on developing Crusader, a heavy mechanized artillery unit.
Crusader would have expanded the Army's ability to create wide swaths of destruction, at least after the Crusader was moved into position.
However, Crusader lacked versatility, maneuverability. It's abilities added to areas in which our military is already very strong, and did not address the kind of conflicts we are likely to face.
It was part of the cold war mentality of bluster and overkill.
The project was a massive waste of the DOD's resources
It was an example of how the army was not modernizing or paying attention to the situation we find ourselves in.
The army was sinking it's resources into building the most powerful mechanized artillery on earth, but ignoring our needs for smaller, more agile vehicles and our need to be able to deal with terrorists and guerrillas rather than huge standing armies that present clear military targets with low risk of collateral damage.
Shinseki was one of those who not only continued to push for things like Crusader, but actively undermined Rumsfeld's efforts to modernize our military.
Rumsfeld didn't fire Shinseki just because he disagreed with Rumsfeld on what troop levels would be necessary in Iraq. Though there is a lot of evidence that Shinseki disagreed with just about anything Rumsfeld did simply because he opposed Rumsfeld.
When Rumsfeld canceled Crusader and changed the direction of the future weapons development for the military, he made a lot of enemies among the power brokers in the military.
We are talking about projects worth many billions of dollars. Many high ranking people in the military make a lot of money advising DOD companies and when Rumsfeld canceled Crusader and changed the direction of development, suddenly a lot of those people were a lot less valuable to private industry.
Rumsfeld also made a lot of enemies in the defense industry, because there were a lot of companies that were investing in building things that the military really didn't need, and now no longer wants.
Just about every time you hear about some general criticizing Rumsfeld, you'll find they had close ties to Crusader or a similar canceled program.
I wouldn't be surprised if Davis has ties to such programs through her contributors or constituents. I wouldn't blame her for fighting for her constituents, but only if she does so honestly.
Secretary Rumsfeld has constantly ignored the professional advice of senior army officers and insisted the war will be fought his way. Mr. Rumsfeld's way has lead to unnecessary casualties and wasted capital. Furthermore, he puts our nation at risk because we are not able to focus on future, riskier potential conflicts, such as Iran and North Korea. Every army soldier saw the way he treated General Shinseki, an honorable man who lost part of his leg in combat in Vietnam and many soldiers felt slighted for their service by such treatment. Still others think he is nothing sort of an egomaniac. A senior army officer once told me he thinks Mr. Rumsfeld is the worst SecDef since Mr. MacNamara.
Mr. Rumsfeld should resign for the good of the nation.
Flame away folks, but it will be mostly navy and air force guys defending the SecDef.
I don't recall what it was. She seemed like a real giant killer when she first won her primary awhile back against a RINO who massively outspent her, but now she comes off as such a flake. I hope the other GOP Congresswoman from VA, Thelma Drake, doesn't similarly go native on us.
Not necessarily.
It took me a while to find it, but it was the CAFTA vote that Davis missed because she got caught in traffic. She said she was going to vote NO, and it passed by only 217-215, so her dislike for free trade and questionable work route caused a Republican from a populist district to risk his seat in 2006 by voting for CAFTA.
Don't waste your time on the troll ping....
I think guys like you and those who criticize Rumsfeld are pissing up a tree. If what he said is true - and I have no cause to doubt it - then he already offered his resignation twice and the President refused it, well - he is there until President Bush leaves office. Stop wasting your breath and our time.
From James Bradley's Flags Of Our Fathers, "(General) Kuribayashi had no expectation that he could win the battle. He knew the Americans would throw overwhelming arms and numbers of men at him." ...
"His goal was a foreshadowing of the enemy's strategy in Vietnam: to make the battle so costly to the Americans in terms of lives that the civilian leaders in Washington would blanch at the prospect of a later invasion of the Japanese mainland."
"It had taken twenty-two crowded transports to bring the 5th Division to the island (Iwo Jima). The survivors fit comfortably onto eight departing ships."
"The American boys had killed 21,000 Japanese, but had suffered 26,000 casualties doing so."
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