Bush's top aide wanted Rumsfeld sacked

The political fallout over claims that the Bush administration was riven by infighting over the Iraq war deepened yesterday when the president's former chief of staff confirmed that he twice sought to sack Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary.

Andrew Card said George W Bush rebuffed his and others' demands to sideline Mr Rumsfeld, who had been accused of mishandling post-war security. The confirmation yesterday triggered talk in Washington that alternative candidates were being sounded out to lead the Pentagon.

The latest bout of speculation began with claims in a new book, State of Denial, by the Watergate journalist Bob Woodward.

Mr Card, who retired in March as chief of staff, backed up key parts of Woodward's book as the White House sought to limit the fallout from its publication before Americans go to polls next month in mid-term elections.

In a television interview, Mr Card revealed that he had kept a notebook while working as Mr Bush's top aide and noted on two separate occasions that he felt that the time was right to dismiss the sometimes abrasive Mr Rumsfeld.

"At least two times I did recommend a change in the position of the secretary of defence, after an election or around a January 1 date," he said. Mr Card recommended that the veteran Republican James Baker take over to improve the prospects of extricating American troops from Iraq.

Mr Card was forced to deny, however, that Laura Bush, the First Lady, had joined him in a campaign against Mr Rumsfeld.

The White House offered strong support yesterday for Mr Rumsfeld who, in December, will become America's longest serving defence secretary. White House counsellor Dan Bartlett said: "We recognise that he has his critics. What President Bush looks to in Secretary Rumsfeld is to bring him the type of information he needs to make the right decisions in this war."

Mr Bartlett led efforts to deride Woodward's claims that Mr Bush had consistently misled Americans with optimistic reports about Iraq. Mr Bartlett said Woodward had reached conclusions that were not supported by his evidence. "The central thesis of this book, that the president was in a state of denial, is not backed up with the facts," said Mr Bartlett.

He rejected an allegation that two months before the September 11 attacks, the then-national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, was told by top spies that they had a "sixth sense" that a massive al-Qa'eda onslaught was imminent.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the American ambassador to Baghdad, rebuffed the renewed chorus of calls for American troops to withdraw from Iraq because the battle had become a recruiting ground for Islamic terrorists.

"If we leave Iraq before the job is done we will be faced with a problem of global terrorism that will be worse than before," he said.

Separately, a new biography of Colin Powell, the former secretary of state, says that Mr Bush sacked the former general and bluntly rejected his analysis that the war in Iraq had become a failed project.

You don't accomplish doing that by running troops and equipment to death without allowing for replacements and equipment upkeep. What part of that can Rummy and congress not yet comprehend? If Rummy on 9/12/01 had went to the POTUS and before Congress and said we are going to war and we need more troops. Then you might be right. He would have gotten them too. Why didn't he? Why you tell me does he insist on running what we have left ragged? That includes troops on third Iraq deployments.

You're a decrepit dinosaur. Go find a cozy place and extinct yourself. Men with vision and courage will define and fight our future battles.

Let me tell you something. The PP Planning of the Poppy Bush years cost us an aircraft carrier. Not an oldie obsolete one either. It missed two critical yard periods and Clinton sent it out out on a third deployment much in the same shape as JFK and KH were after 9/11. THE SHIP HAD A MMR EXPLOSION UPON RETURN. Do you have a clue as to what 1200 PSI super heated steam is? Do you know it's dangers? It will cut your head off with a leak the size of a number 2 pencil lead. I kid you not.

Do you think our nuke Navy can deploy indefinitely as well? It can't nor can soldiers without down time. A nuke ship has the same maintenance rotation need as a conventional one. Are things being ran to the standard of Rickover? Nuke carriers are 1200 PSI systems just like the conventional. But that is but a part of the maintenance issue.

With what happened under Poppy Bush and Clinton it is wise to ask questions and expect answers other than well, you don't go to war with...." This is the 5th anniversary since 9/11 with a GOP congress and POTUS. Where's the help? Oh yea Rummy called up the NG's and reserves for the Upteenth time in the past 12 years for extended deployments. Many of them are on second tours as well. Yea he's a real sharp planner he is. Yippie!!!! We are one Pearl Harbor away from having our major Naval capacities wiped out well into two decades from now.

BTW what moron put three carriers in the same yard at the same time? Do you know and understand what material condition Zebra is and the impossibility of those ships obtaining it in that venue much less even Yoke? Worse what is across the river from that yard where those carriers are? We are a Pearl Harbor away from disaster unequaled since WW2. The best way to avoid it is not to go there to start with by making bonehead planning.

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