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SOD Rumsfeld said that Bremer was his choice. He also knows Jay Garner was doing a damn fine job. Brener reports to Gen. Tommy Franks who reports to SOD Rumsfeld, who's under the President.

WP and Reuters? And Freepers buy it without checking a reliable source first? Dang.

It is time to ~~shoot~~ expose the scheming messengers - first. When they point at someone, shine the light first at them. Baghdad Bob had nothing on the international mainstream newsmedia.

The Real Scandal of Iraqi Relief, so-called 'humanitarian' NGOs. Still no "thank you, USA!" from this bunch of left-wing Saddam-UN apologists.

The liberal newsmedia may spin it, but it is fact that Garner and his team has been recalled.

State foisted Bodine on Garner, she was in charge of getting the public utilities going, and didn't and it appears Garner got blamed. But the fact that State never wanted Garner, because he was a retired General and Rumsfeld's first choice makes you wonder about this fight between State and Defense.

As I said before and say it again, Gingrich is 100% right. State Dept. keeps undermining the President.

I think Bush left it to Rumsfeld and Powell to figure out the details, and this is what happened.

Someone pointed it out that ultimately it's Bush's decision, and it is, but you can't go to the president with every little spat between the two departments, they are expected to work it out, or Bush could spend full time adjudicating between them, when in fact he has other things to do.

I think what we are seeing is the tip of the iceberg,in terms of the damage State is doing, by constantly putting the interests of foreign nations ahead of the intersts of the US in the name of "diplomacy". Their job is NOT to represent the interest of foreign nations and persuade the US to bend to their wills, their job is the exact opposite: to bend other nations to OUR interests, which they are not doing.

If the quotes/attitudes ascribed to Garner in this (quagmire) article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution yesterday have any credibility, then removing Garner quickly was the correct move.

"Garner acknowledged this week that American planners were taken by surprise by the scale of the looting.
Reconstruction planners have acknowledged they came shorthanded and under-equipped. A senior official in Garner's office was not aware that U.S. troops had killed about 13 Iraqis in the town of Fallujah -- front-page news in most of America -- until almost two days later when informed by reporters.
Getting news out is also a problem. Garner has openly lamented his inability to get information to the Iraqi people amid what he said were insufficient American attempts to start up radio and television broadcasts.
"We haven't done a good job," he said. "I want TV going to the people ... programs they want to see."

It's going to be tough getting Iraq rebuilt, and the last thing we need is a leader who at worst may be a quagmirist himself, or, at best, doesn't know how to avoid the traps the media sets. Garner did a good job with the Kurds, but it may be that he can't handle the other factions (including the press). It's also a positive sign that Bodine is being yanked -- her last Middle East assignment of playing kissy-face with the despots of Yemen doesn't exactly qualify her for the post-9/11 world.