Posted on 12/02/2006 1:20:05 PM PST by Sub-Driver
Rumsfeld Memo Proposed Major Adjustment in Iraq By MICHAEL R. GORDON and DAVID S. CLOUD WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administrations strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction.
In my view it is time for a major adjustment, wrote Mr. Rumsfeld, who has been a symbol of a dogged stay-the-course policy. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough.
Nor did Mr. Rumsfeld seem confident that the administration would readily develop an effective alternative. To limit the political fallout from shifting course he suggested the administration consider a campaign to lower public expectations.
Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis, he wrote. This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not lose.
Recast the U.S. military mission and the U.S. goals (how we talk about them) go minimalist, he added. Mr. Rumsfelds memo suggests frustration with the pace of turning over responsibility to the Iraqi authorities; in fact, the memo calls for examination of ideas that roughly parallel troop withdrawal proposals presented by some of the White Houses sharpest Democratic critics. (Text of the Memo)
The memos discussion of possible troop reduction options offers a counterpoint to Mr. Rumsfelds frequent public suggestions that discussions about force levels are driven by requests from American military commanders.
Instead, the memo puts on the table several ideas for troop redeployments or withdrawals that appear to conflict with recent public pronouncements from commanders in Iraq emphasizing the need to maintain troop levels.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
We have heard from the beginning that this will take time.
Go back to our own Revolutionary War. It took from 1776 to get to the 1783 Treaty with Britain and to 1789 to seat our first President and we had a Colonial Government in place to start with. Plenty of British loyalists around every step of the way.
It wasn't until the Treaty of Ghent that the whole matter was satisfied.
I see now that the left is saying Rumsfeld's plan is just the same as Baker's (ie The Democrats) plan. Now that Rummy's name is on it, Bush will buy it. Ugh. They will never give Rummy an inch.
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