Kerry calls for Rumsfeld to resign:
“Yesterday, the Schlesinger panel released their report which found that much of the responsibility for setting the conditions for the abuse at Abu Ghraib can be attributed to failures at highest levels of our government. Today the Fay report will be released and will recommend punitive action for those in our military who were directly involved.
Er, actually, the report said that most of the responsibility was the fault of the guard and supervisors of the prison, but that the Pentagon should have done a better job of managing in the first place.
“But what is missing from all these reports is accountability from the senior civilian leaders in the Pentagon and in the White House. From the bottom of the chain of command all the way to the top, there needs to be accountability. The Schlesinger report makes clear that Secretary Rumsfeld was responsible for setting a climate where these types of abuses could occur.
Er, no, it actually didn’t go all the way to Rumsfeld. As the civilian head, he’s not supposed to be messing with operational details. ScrappleFace has the funny version of this.
“By failing to plan to win the peace, by failing to make sure our troops received the proper training, equipment, reinforcement and command guidance, and by failing to take corrective actions once all of this became apparent, Secretary Rumsfeld did not demonstrate the leadership required from a Secretary of Defense.
Well, he fired the person in charge the prison, and started the investigation that brought up all these charges.
“That is why today I am calling on Secretary Rumsfeld to resign effective immediately. In addition, I call on the President to appoint an independent investigation to review the entire decision making process that led to these abuses and provide a comprehensive set of reforms so that we can ensure that this never happens again.
Did anyone here read “Plan of Attack”?
One of the things I like about Rumsfeld is that he is constantly questioning himself and the Pentagon. While Woodward’s thesis was that Rumsfeld made it “too easy” to go to war, I didn’t see that. What I saw was the ideal Secretary of War (we haven’t had a Secretary of Defense since 9/11): Someone who brought the military around to the diplomatic and political realities. He pushed the Pentagon to give the President real options. The original plan which read like a 1950 invasion plan: bomb the shit out of the Iraqis until they surrender. There would have been 100,000 civilian casualties, easy.
So while 150 prisoners may have been abused, its also true that it was the Pentagon that independently found out it was going on and shut it down. Meanwhile, because Rumsfeld pushed the Pentagon out of their comfort zone, thousands of Iraqi lives were saved vs. the original battle plan.
If you fired everyone who made a mistake, there would be no one working. Rumsfeld’s job is to be the bad cop to Powell’s good cop. That is, don’t mess with the US or we’ll sick Rumsfeld on you!
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