That would be a more appropriate story title. That anybody would be calling for Donald Rumsfeld’s resignation is preposterous enough, let alone the Democrat’s favorite Republican Sen. John McCain chiming in with his purely opportunistic politically motivated shot at the President, using Sec. Rumsfeld as the ammo.
There isn’t a more qualified person on the planet right now who could do a better job. What we have now are Democrats and opportunistic Republicans playing the role of the backseat driver. And they will focus on the negative and make up a story to fit their story line.
We can’t overlook or forget about the military successes that we’ve had since the War on Terror put us on the offensive. In a few months Rumsfeld did what Russia couldn’t do in ten years. We ousted the Taliban, freeing about 25 million people from oppression, rape, and torture. Afghanistan has held their first election in their entire world history. The side benefit of exterminating terrorists is that the people will choose freedom over terrorism, which in turn make us just that much safer at home. Today we are 30 days away from Iraq’s first democratic style election in their history. Saddam was toppled in 3 weeks. In both theaters the coalition losses are, by comparison to previous wars, lower by orders of magnitude. Rumsfeld is a winner, and you don’t replace a winner.
What it all comes down to is a backhanded way to take a shot at Bush by bad-mouthing his Sec. Of Defense. The reason it is backhanded, deliberate, and opportunistic is the ‘story’ that started it all.
The press reports of the answer that Sec. Rumsfeld gave that soldier were edited to the point where their "story" was a fabricated attack piece. Never mind that a reporter who was intent on making news rather than reporting it planted the question. And the unit where the soldier who asked about the deficiencies in "up-armoring" the Humvees had 784 of his 804 vehicles up-armored when the question was posed. There was an ongoing program to up-armor the Humvees long before that Q&A session, and the remaining 20 Humvees were up-armored the very next day. 100% up armored. Did you see that reported anywhere?
If the press had reported ALL or at least the beginning of his answer to that soldier, it would have shown the sincerity of his answer. Instead, and because of the way the press reported it, and because opportunists like John McCain felt no need to question the version that the "biased" media was putting out, Sec. Rumsfeld was sharply criticized for being flippant with the soldier, which in actuality, he was anything but.
Trying to fight a war with a couple of Yorkies nipping on your pants cuff does make the effort more difficult than it has to be. Just remember 2 years and 4 years from now which Senators were on the right side of our Country’s defense, and which ones took pathetic shots at the top brass for political points, while we are at war. Remember who the Yorkies were.
