Centerblue.org

So Rumsfeld sent a memo to Bush two days before his resignation calling for a drastic change of course in Iraq, along with 21 “ideas” on how to change course.

Where were these “ideas” prior to the election? Was it so important to cling to power that trying to win the election by “staying the course” of a sinking ship was more important than the thousands of lives and billions of dollars lost? Or is Rumsfeld simply so arrogant that he could only admit defeat by poo pooing the whole endeavor on his way out the door?

It’s not as if the “ideas” in the memo show any depth of analysis. They sound more akin to the kind of garbage you would put on powerpoint slides to bumbling, clueless corporate executives who have no knowledge of what’s going on underneath them, to give them the illusion that their shops are being creative and getting work done. Examples:

• “Announce that whatever new approach the U.S. decides on, the U.S. is doing so on a trial basis….This will give us the ability to readjust and move to another course, if necessary, and therefore not ‘lose.’ “
• “Recast the U.S. military mission and the U.S. goals (how we talk about them) — go minimalist.”
• “Begin modest withdrawals of U.S. and Coalition forces (start ‘taking our hand off the bicycle seat’), so Iraqis know they have to pull up their socks, step up, and take responsibility for their country.”

It’s pathetic that the US course on Iraq has come down to nothing more than feel-good “corporate speak” without any real analysis or thought given to how to implement them or to the consequences of delaying a change of course until it was more politically convenient.

As for Rumsfeld, he will probably go down in history as one of the most incompetent DoD Secretaries ever. If he really felt this way, that the course in Iraq was a bad one, he had a duty to himself, his troops and his country to make the case as soon as he felt it necessary. By withholding his opinion until he was shown the door demonstrates he was nothing but a spineless puppet who didn’t give a damn about the thousands of men and women who have given their lives in furtherance of this miserable adventure.