A Crack in the Bush Reality Stonewall

It's worth pulling this site out of the semi-retirement of the last few months to happily report that Bush has finally fired Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It should have happened years ago. Like his boss, Rumsfeld is a man of big ideas but little experience. He has let half-baked ideology trump expertise. For six years he's over-ruled generals to wage a foolish war in Iraq. He famously thought that Iraq could be won with a minimum of ground troops, that high tech wizardry could win a dirty insurgency.

Yesterday's election were a clear message to President Bush that his Iraq policy is unpopular, wrong, and just plain stupid. What's surprising is that our stonewalling president reacted so swiftly by sacking Rumsfeld. He must be terribly afraid of the consequences of a Democratic House of Representatives. Finally he will be accountable to the American people. This war has been immoral and badly-fought. It's time that it ends.

It's gotten so messy that even a pacifist like me can't insist on immediate withdrawal. Like Rumsfeld I'm an ideologue; unlike him I know I'm not qualified to decide on the right mix of diplomacy and military policing needed to keep Iraq and Afghanistan from falling into even greater chaos. A number of top U.S. generals have spoken out in the war, both directly and indirectly and I suspect they have some good ideas--ones that will protect our troops and serve the clear national interest we have in keeping Iraq from civil war. Let's hope they get to speak and that the president and next secretary of defense start to listen.