Rumsfeld rightly on the hot seat

If you do a Google search for “Donald” and “You’re fired,” you’ll get more hits on Trump than Rumsfeld. That could change, though, as a growing number of Republicans express dissatisfaction with Rumsfeld and his lean war effort in Iraq.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a former POW who was angry about the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal (which had roots in policies adopted with Rumsfeld’s acquiescence), now says he has no confidence in Rumsfeld. McCain and fellow GOP Sens. Charles Hagel of Nebraska and Richard Lugar of Indiana have all said the situation in Iraq is poorly managed. Questions have arisen from the beginning about inadequate troop levels and equipment shortages – from personal body armor to the readiness of military vehicles.

With Iraqi elections coming up in a month, the inability to quell insurgency or stem the toll of American military casualties makes it apparent that Rumsfeld was wrong, after all, to think the mission could be accomplished with minimal personnel and materiel.

Those concerns came to a head earlier this month when a National Guardsman, whose Tennessee unit was in Kuwait but bound for Iraq, asked Rumsfeld to his face about the shortage of proper equipment. As any GI knows, the Guardsman’s public directness with someone so far up the chain of command was risky, as was the burst of applause that erupted from others in his unit – signs of how serious the situation is. The incident has opened the nation’s eyes in a way that Democrats and war critics couldn’t.

Rumsfeld’s reply that “you go to war with the army you have” didn’t go over well. The troops deserved better, said Hagel. Rumsfeld shouldn’t blame the military in Iraq for civilians’ failings in Washington, D.C., said Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, hero of Desert Storm. Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott of Mississippi said change needs to occur at Defense. Sens. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, weighed in over the Pentagon’s lackadaisical approach to supplying vehicles to the war zone.

The most telling reaction came from Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, an influential member of the neoconservative movement that has pushed hardest, since as early as the Clinton administration, for regime change in Iraq.

In a scathing column for the Washington Post, Kristol wrote that the Army has performed a lot better than Rumsfeld, whom he accused of “arrogant buck-passing.”

The White House reaction to all this? Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Bush believes Rumsfeld “is doing a great job.”

It doesn’t sound as though anyone will be telling Donald Rumsfeld, “You’re fired.” But for those who fancy reality shows, the ultimate one being played out by American military personnel in Iraq will end tragically, if the Defense secretary doesn’t listen to the critics and address their concerns.