Rumsfeld Quits, Replaced by Iran-Contra Figure

The American Secretary of Defense, Field Marshal Donald von Rumsfeld, either resigned or was sacked on Wednesday, the verb depending on who tells the story. While he should have been out months, if not years ago, his departure is not enough. The war in Iraq-Nam continues, and his replacement, former CIA boss Robert Gates, comes with no small amount of baggage, not least of which is involvement in the arms-for-hostages affair known as Iran-Contra. Still, this is progress, even if the friends of the president’s dad are bailing out the scion of privilege, again.

This journal dubbed him Field Marshal von Rumsfeld in mocking recognition that this peace-time Navy aviator decided he knew better than the Pentagon how America’s military needed to be structured for the 21st century. His faith in technology over manpower is the hallmark of American business, but in the sands of Iraq-Nam or the mud of southeast Asia, it’s the 19-year-old with a rifle that determines the outcome. For example, billions were spent on Virginia-class nuclear submarines, decidedly useless when the enemy is in the mountains of Afghanistan or the Mesopotamian desert. Meanwhile, troops have died due to lack of body armor.

Furthermore, the ex-secretary of defense had annoyed so many of the officers with stars on their epaulettes by September 10, 2001, that it was certain he wouldn’t last another year. Then, Al Qaeda murdered close to 3,000 people in the US. Precisely why the Republican administration failed to prevent the attack remains a mystery, but Mr. Rumsfeld bears no small responsibility. Yet flag waving patriots saved his job, and in gratitude, he demanded as early as September 12, 2001 that America attack Iraq because, as Bob Woodward quoted, “there are not many good targets in Afghanistan.”

When the Abu Ghraib scandal appeared in full color in the newspapers, Field Marshal von Rumsfeld did offer his resignation. Mr. Bush should have accepted it, not only because it would have demonstrated that the administration did hold some humanitarian standards, but also because the war was clearly headed in the wrong direction even then. Since that scandal broke, the US has continued to lose the hearts and minds of Muslims and Iraqis. A new secretary of defense could have reversed that.

Mr. Gates, of course, is an old friend of George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president’s father. Indeed, he was nominated twice by the 41st president to be CIA director. He was not indicted for his actions during the Iran-Contra affair (in which US government officials violated standing US policy and traded arms to Iran to release hostages held in Lebanon, and then took the money generated to fund the right-wing insurgents in Nicaragua, known as the Contras, despite laws against funding them). However, he was in a position to known, and certainly, he should have known. His possible involvement caused him to withdraw his first nomination to be America's leading spook. On the plus side, he is a member of the Iraq Study Group [ISG], headed by James Baker III, another Friend of Dad’s, which will tell the president what US policy in Iraq-Nam should be.

The departure of Mr. Rumsfeld was a necessary condition for getting the mess in Iraq fixed, or as fixed as it can get. Mr. Gates is known as a good implementer of established policy, so he should be the right guy to follow through on the ISG’s recommendations. Whether those recommendations can work (and if they can, whether they desirable) remain to be seen. If one wants grounds for optimism, though, every time in the past that Friends of Dad’s have had to bail George “LBJ” Bush out, they have succeeded.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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