Posted on 12/21/2004 6:17:49 AM PST by OESY
...Now let's say your goal is to encourage and achieve a change in leadership at the Pentagon, since you have decided that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is a) ineffective, b) making disastrous policy decisions, c) too stubborn to change direction — or d) refusing to do what you insist he do.
You figure the president must agree with you, because you're right and Rummy is just wrong. Iraq isn't yet secured, and you're sure that's because of Rumsfeld's ideas.
Except it appears the president doesn't agree with you, because..., the White House announces that Bush has asked Rumsfeld to stay on.
This makes you mad, worried and even furious....
Of course, it turns out that very nearly all (800 out of 820) of his unit's Humvees are, in fact, armored....
No matter. Rumsfeld offers a pretty frank answer. He acknowledges shortcomings in the production line, claims they're the result of physical limitations, and then says, "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have....
Perhaps you wouldn't think his answer flip if you weren't already spitting nails at the guy. You might have taken the measure of his full answer....
After all, this is Washington, where the great sport is the getting of scalps, the forced sacrifice of reputations and jobs as atonement for policies that haven't gone perfectly.
The drumbeat starts. People say things on TV. They say things in op-eds. They are quoted by other people on TV and in op-eds. The drumbeat is relentless.
But the president is George W. Bush. And the one thing you can say about George W. Bush is that he doesn't like it when people try to make him act in accord with a growing conventional wisdom....
He said he was thankful that Rumsfeld agreed to stay on....
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Fire Rummy, Wolfy becomes SecDef.
ping
From Hagel to McCain to the people on this web site, it is ridiculous.
Maybe some of these people would want Joe Biden as SecDef. Or think THEY could win two wars and free 50 million people in a four year period. But I doubt they could.
This is not a Rumsfeld-invented phrase - he alludes to the fact that it's oft repeated with the "As you know..."
It's heard frequently when the professional military discusses modernization.
Like it or not, the budget is limited, and priorities have to be established.
"pileon mentality"
I like your description. pileon = pylon = cone head
"Like it or not, the budget is limited, and priorities have to be established."
...not to mention the way the procurement system "works"
I could have told the MSM echo chamber & the McCain Media Whores that Bush would not sack Rummy over trivial BS.
Did he use an auto-pen or not? Sheesh. As I am a former Marine, I asked my wife if she cared whether a future letter from Rummy re my death was signed or auto-penned. Her response was that she doesn't give a damn about condolence letters in the first place.
and as we all know, coneheads are from...France.
This is just more "gotcha politics". Bush and Rummy been through it before, and understand it well. This incident will fade away until the next "crisis" comes along.
I understand that a reporter might finagle a loaded question into the SecDef's Q&A. I also understand that the Media were disappointed that Rumsfeld was asked to stay on. But the people I really blame for this mini-firestorm are the tag-team of McCain & Kristol. Who says that the Campaign of '08 has yet to begin?
I'll second that!
Of course with the inept, self serving pols, we have come to expect no more.
For crying out loud, they can't even stop the Dimocrat "filibustering" of judicial appointments.
As for Freepers; most are constant and everlasting President Bush bashers, upset with our "open and porous" border policies, as they have every right to do.
The rest seem to be unemployed cabinet officials, and isn't that good for us? ;)
IMO we're going to continue hearing all this
clap-trap until at least after the DNC has
chosen a new leader. Everyone wants their
name in the headlines and their faces to be
seen on TV newshours...preferably on Sunday
a.m. and after 5 p.m. weekdays.
BTW, whatever happened with that McCain
call for government support of a national
baseball organization? Guess he figures
if Nascar got Bush votes, he'd try America's
traditional game! <>g<>
I am very appreciative that Bush didn't give the lefties, including turncoat RINOs McCainiac, Lott, et al, what they wanted, and throw Rummy under the bus. If he had, they just would have gone after another "trophy", and the U.S. and the President would have looked weak to the rest of the World. Dubya did exactly the right thing!
i want rummy there til the absolute LAST DAY of this administration in January of 2009. I despise Hagel and McCain and this whole hullabaloo is trumped up to beat the administration over the head with. it is getting on my last nerve. i want rummy to say, Hey, i was going to leave next year, but you know what? i feel like sticking around til the END now... take that.
Back when I worked for a defense contractor, one company had a promotional video stating that the next war would be a "Come as you are war" where the country wouldn't have time to increase the size of the military and run the arms factories (and for that reason the DoD should send lots of money to the contractor now). That's essentially what Rumsfeld said. I disagree with this because we had about a year and a half between 9/11 and the start of the Iraq war to increase the size of the military but the government decided not to.
I like Scrappleface's follow-up on this non-story:
"DNA testing reveals Rummy did not actually lick the postage stamps for these letters"
Outrageous! Impeach Bush Now! hehe
What tics me is this quote is made to sound like it was the only answer he gave. There was much more to his answer before he said this part, then more after it. This quote was selectively taken out and repeated on the air ways to sound as if Rummy is heartless and dismissing any problems.
That's what I told my husband, if he or one of our sons was killed in action, the signature would not be a priority for me. That would be the last thing I cared about.
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