It would be easy to get confused about what’s happening in Iraq, listening to all the voices. The voices we hear are dischordant. Do we listen to the current Secretary of Defense, or do we listen to the retired Major General who was in charge of training Iraq’s new army?
He (Rumsfeld) said “the terrorists” in Iraq were attempting to stoke sectarian tension and spark civil war, but that they must be “watching with fear” the progress in the country over the past three years.
“The terrorists seem to recognize that they are losing in Iraq. I believe that history will show that to be the case,” Rumsfeld said.
But in an opinion piece published on Sunday in the New York Times, Eaton said Rumsfeld had proven himself “not competent to lead our armed forces” and therefore “must step down.”
“First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called ‘old Europe’ has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input,” Eaton said.
I’m not sure about the history of the animosity between Rumsfeld and his former subordinate, but I do know that there are 35 countries participating in our military operations in Afghanistan and around 30 participating in operations in Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld is correct when he says leaving Iraq now would be the equivalent of handing Germany back to the Nazi party after World War II. It’s a good analogy. Rumsfeld is easy to criticize. And he probably has made mistakes. We all do.
“Imagine what would happen if it were announced tomorrow in the headlines of the papers of in America and throughout the world that Rumsfeld was fired,” said Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record), a Delaware Democrat. “It would energize, energize the rest of the world. They’d be willing to help us.”
Really? I think that’s sort of delusional. Firing Rumsfeld would be the key that would turn this war around? One man is responsible for all the mistakes we’ve made in Iraq? Wow. If only things were really that simple. Maybe someone should poll the rest of the world first though, so we can all be sure that Rumsfeld is the crux of all our problems. Yes, a poll would certainly ferret out the truth, just as it jcategorically proved once and for all my suspicion that more than 80% of the troops are against this war and want to come home immediately (insert sarcastic tone here, just in case you missed it).
Should we try to learn from our mistakes? Certainly. Should we listen to suggestions for improvement from the bottom up? Absolutely. Can we improve on our efforts to help rebuild Iraq? Yes, we can. Are we losing in Iraq? No. Are we losing back home? Perhaps we are. The hearts and minds of Americans are truly where this war will be won or lost. It’s not about whether Donald Rumsfeld or Joe Leiberman is our Secretary of Defense. It’s about whether America, as a whole, has the backbone to finish the task we have started in Iraq, imperfect and messy and painful as that task may be.
President George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld will have faded from the political spotlight long before the issue of Iraq and the larger issue of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism have been decided. What’s happening now in Iraq is going to follow America around for my lifetime and yours. We should try to be a little less schizophrenic when it comes to national self-dialogue. If we can’t figure out how to work together, we’re going to fail miserably, and not just in Iraq.