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Well, it's official: Don Rumsfeld has been declared the fall guy for the Bush Administration's prosecution of the War in Iraq. What was that, you ask? "Who made the declaration?" Why, it was those unlikely bedfellows, William Kristol, the New York Times, and Norman Schwarzkopf (Gen., US Army, ret.). Apparently, everything that has gone wrong in Iraq, has been President Rumsfeld's fault: He sent insufficient numbers of men to fight the war, he was responsible for the torture at Abu Ghraib, and worst of all, he was insufficiently deferential to the G.I. who asked him at a December 8...

We’ll regret it if Rumsfeld goes. The Washington Post recently warned that doctors are urging interested parties of all types to get their flu shots before the "scarce" vaccine is thrown out. But how is such a surfeit possible when our national media scared us to death just a few months ago with the specter of a national flu epidemic, corporate malfeasance, and Bush laxity? That perfect storm of incompetence and skullduggery purportedly combined to leave us vulnerable to mass viral attack. So how can the Post now characterize something as "scarce" that is soon to be discarded for a...

The truth trickles out. "It now appears that the premise of the question that caused an uproar around Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was, so to speak, off base," FNC's Brit Hume noted Tuesday night in reminding viewers how two weeks ago National Guardsman "Thomas Wilson said to Rumsfeld, quote, 'our vehicles are not armored, we do not have proper armament vehicles to carry with us north,' into Iraq." But, Hume relayed, "according to senior Army officers, about 800 of the 830 vehicles in Wilson's Army regiment, the 278th Calvary, had already been up-armored" at the time of his widely...

If the left is to have any hope of undermining President Bush’s second term, it must continue its previous efforts to destroy the reputation of every worthwhile conservative in his cabinet. And no one is more likely to remain a target than Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. As the nation prepared for war in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, Rumsfeld’s candor and resolve, expressed daily during his press briefings, made him immensely popular among the American people. Among reporters, he was grudgingly tolerated along with the rampant flag-waving and other expressions of an America that was rising to meet its enemies...

U.S. Department of DefenseOffice of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Public Affairs)News Transcript On the Web: http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2004/tr20041215-1801.htmlMedia contact: +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact:http://www.dod.mil/faq/comment.html or +1 (703) 428-0711 Presenter: : Major General Stephen Speakes, U.S. Army G-8, Force Development; Brigadier General (P) Jeffrey Sorenson, Deputy for Acquisition Systems Management to the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics, and Technology; Colonel John Rooney, Chief of Staff, Army Test and Development Command Wednesday, December 15, 2004 8:03 a.m. EST Special Defense Department Briefing on Uparmoring HMMWV             STAFF (COL Joe Curtin, OCPA):  Good morning, everybody.  Thank you for turning out...

Last year, Midge Decter, wife of Norman Podhoretz, who has been howling for "World War IV" against the Arabs, published a mash note titled, "Rumsfeld: A Personal Portrait." The University of Houston's James D. Fairbanks began his review thus: "Neoconservative writer Midge Decter sets out to explain just what it is about Donald Rumsfeld that has well-educated, sophisticated women swooning over him. Those unaware that Rumsfeld mania has been sweeping the country have obviously not attended the same fashionable dinner parties as Decter. Her book begins with a description of one such party where women sat around gushing over the...

...Even during ongoing military campaigns, Mr. Rumsfeld never wavered from his transformational objectives.... Mr. Rumsfeld, with the brilliant leadership of General Schoomaker, was able to move personnel from noncombat to combat units, enabling them with additional reorganization to create 15 newly restructured combat brigades. Also, because of Mr. Rumsfeld's successful plan, our military is more flexible, more agile and better able to fight unconventional enemies. A new civilian personnel system was designed to reward merit, reduce force stress and replace a bureaucratic culture of risk aversion with one of innovation. Moreover, he was able to move military personnel out of...

"The reporter who managed to get a National Guardsman serving in Iraq to question Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld about why his unit's vehicles lacked sufficient armor coached the soldier using false information," NewsMax.com reports. "In fact, by the time Chattanooga Times Free Press reporter Edward Lee Pitts rehearsed Spc. Thomas 'Jerry' Wilson on what to say to Rumsfeld, the Pentagon had already up-armored 97 percent of the vehicles in Thomas' 278th Regimental Combat Team, senior members of the Army's combat systems development and acquisition team said Thursday. "Further undermining the premise of Pitts' question, orders to up-armor the...

The long knives have been unsheathed, and Donald Rumsfeld’s back targeted. One of the most capable, energetic, intelligent, determined and articulate public servants in the history of the American Republic is under fire for not being omniscient and infallible, and for using an Auto-Pen to sign letters of condolence to the families of those killed in action. A classic orchestrated PR offensive is underway, bearing all the signs of the customary collaboration among the Usual Suspects in the capital’s media-political universe. Things were getting scary for the opponents of George W. Bush. Not only did he win a smashing electoral...

Hello FreeRepublic Posters, I want to ask a question that I am sure at least a few of you will have the REAL information on , but I have not seen it posted here. It concerns this issue about the families of those who lost thier loved ones while Bravely serving in the Armed Service and defending Our Country receiving letters of condolence form our Governement officials. It is still a sensitive topic in our house due to the lose of my sister's ex-husband, ( my ex-brother-in-law and a good friend ) ,who lost his life a litle over 2...

Rightwingnews.com asks was the un-armored Humvee story a hoax?

Firing Rumsfeld over this flap would only encourage the jihadis During the presidential campaign, John Kerry vacillated between two anthems: Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender" and "I Won't Back Down," by Tom Petty. Bush used "Still the One" until its composer, John Hall, told him to cease and desist. There is no indication the President cared. He's not a music lover. But every administration needs a theme song. Since Kerry no longer needs one, Bush should borrow one of his. "No Surrender," despite its title, is a melancholy tale of youthful determination gone soft. Petty's hard line - You can stand...

Armor installed within 24 hours of soldiers' complaint 2004-12-17 From Wire ReportsSenior Army officials told a wire service reporter Wednesday that within 24 hours of a soldier's complaint to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about shortages of vehicle armor in Iraq, protective armor had been installed on every vehicle in the soldier's unit.According to a Hearst Newspaper report Thursday, Army Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes and Army Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, senior members of the Army's combat systems development and acquisition team at the Pentagon, said routine pre-deployment preparations before proceeding to Iraq included adding protective armor plates to the last 20...

When an Army reservist in Kuwait gave Donald Rumsfeld an earful Wednesday about inadequate armor for Iraq-bound Humvees, the Defense Secretary responded by paying the soldier the compliment of candor. "You go to war with the army you have. They're not the army you might want or wish to have," he said. That's at least an honest answer, and the Secretary's forthrightness seems to have been appreciated by the troops at the town hall meeting, who gave him a standing ovation. But back in Washington, candor has gotten more than one official in trouble. Faster than you could say "Abu...

"The first point is that you'll recollect that one of the questions was the status of the 278 ACR; in other words, the date that we had the visit by the secretary of Defense, we had a question about their up-armoring status.  When the question was asked, 20 vehicles remained to be up-armored at that point.  We completed those 20 vehicles in the next day.  And so over 800 vehicles from the 278 ACR were up-armored, and they are a part now of their total force that is operating up in Iraq."

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., gave embattled Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a vote of confidence on Sunday, contradicting an earlier report quoting him as saying he'd "had it" with the defense chief. "I assure you that in the three-plus years that I have worked with Secretary Rumsfeld, we've had our differences," Sen. Warner told NBC's "Meet the Press." "But I have confidence in my ability and his ability to continue to work together as a team for the common goals of the men and women of the Armed Forces and to support the goals of the commander...

Among the many distinctive expressions Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has offered as gifts to the media is the following: “I don’t do quagmires,” referring to the mantra-like repetition by some war critics that Iraq has become a quagmire. The media, however, especially its Official Rumsfeld-Hating Clique, remains mired in the viciously viscous putrid muck of all-consuming loathing of the Secretary of Defense. That same media currently has its puerile knickers in a twist about President Bush awarding Tommy Franks, Paul Bremer and George Tenet the Medal of Freedom. Or, as liberal columnist Richard Cohen, speaking for many media colleagues,...

The word from a soldier just back from IraqI have been in the Army for the last seven years. I have gone through the good and bad times in the military. It is a lifestyle that if you do not live every day, you cannot even come close to understanding. I have been to Bosnia, Kosovo, and have just returned from Iraq. I can tell you that no one feels the loss of soldiers more than we do. Even the families do not deal with the emotional pain and stress that we do when we have to pick up the...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House gave a new vote of confidence on Friday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld amid growing criticism of him from members of President Bush (news - web sites)'s own Republican Party. "Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job leading our efforts at the Department of Defense (news - web sites) to win the war on terrorism and to help bring about a free and peaceful Iraq (news - web sites), and the president is focused on working closely with him on those matters," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. Rumsfeld has faced heavy criticism for not...

It may not have been conscious sabotage of the defense secretary, but it's hard to believe otherwise. Nowhere was the media's irresponsibility on the Iraq conflict more acutely demonstrated than in the barrage of ugly news reports on Donald Rumsfeld's exchange in Kuwait with Spc. Thomas Wilson, an exchange that is still reverberating across the country. Those who pay close attention to the news are almost certainly familiar with the reported encounter. Spc. Wilson, an airplane mechanic with the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked the secretary an important question: ". . . A lot of us are getting ready to...