Nbadan
11-29-2004, 12:37 AM
Sarah Baxter, New York
THE American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, should be sacked, according to a growing chorus of conservative commentators who want him replaced by a figure with wider appeal.
In a seemingly innocuous Thanksgiving message to readers last week, William Kristol, the neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, slipped in a surprise demand for Rumsfeld’s dismissal.
“What remains to be done is to announce new leadership for the department of defence,” wrote Kristol. “This, surely, would be an important opportunity for a strong, Bush-doctrine-supporting outsider, someone who of course would be a team player, but someone who could also work with the military and broaden support for the president’s policy.”
Boiled down, this meant: almost anybody but Rumsfeld, whose performance has not always matched his swagger. His failure to install enough troops on the ground after last year’s invasion of Iraq has upset American generals and alienated supporters of the war.
“I am allergic to Rumsfeld,” said Ralph Peters, a former lieutenant-colonel and robust media champion of the war on terror. “We did a great thing in Iraq, but we did it very badly.
Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1378195,00.html)
Kristol, a regular Marcus Bryant source, is also co-founder and Chairman of PNAC. The political Neocon group that encouraged W to invade Iraq, and had the plans drawn up since Clinton was President to do so. Guess Kristol is a little miffed that Rummy hasn't been able to deliver the NeoCon ideological dream of expanding Pax America in Iraq. I mean, who would have planned that the Iraqi people would resist being occupied, right?
THE American defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, should be sacked, according to a growing chorus of conservative commentators who want him replaced by a figure with wider appeal.
In a seemingly innocuous Thanksgiving message to readers last week, William Kristol, the neoconservative editor of The Weekly Standard magazine, slipped in a surprise demand for Rumsfeld’s dismissal.
“What remains to be done is to announce new leadership for the department of defence,” wrote Kristol. “This, surely, would be an important opportunity for a strong, Bush-doctrine-supporting outsider, someone who of course would be a team player, but someone who could also work with the military and broaden support for the president’s policy.”
Boiled down, this meant: almost anybody but Rumsfeld, whose performance has not always matched his swagger. His failure to install enough troops on the ground after last year’s invasion of Iraq has upset American generals and alienated supporters of the war.
“I am allergic to Rumsfeld,” said Ralph Peters, a former lieutenant-colonel and robust media champion of the war on terror. “We did a great thing in Iraq, but we did it very badly.
Times Online (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1378195,00.html)
Kristol, a regular Marcus Bryant source, is also co-founder and Chairman of PNAC. The political Neocon group that encouraged W to invade Iraq, and had the plans drawn up since Clinton was President to do so. Guess Kristol is a little miffed that Rummy hasn't been able to deliver the NeoCon ideological dream of expanding Pax America in Iraq. I mean, who would have planned that the Iraqi people would resist being occupied, right?