Our Opinion
IT IS TIME for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumseld to either submit his resignation to President Bush — or for the President to fire and replace him.
The need for Rumsfeld’s departure does not stem from the half-dozen or so retired generals who called for his replacement two weeks ago.
These calls likely made it politically impossible for President Bush to remove Rumsfeld.
Rather, Rumsfeld must be replaced because he has been at least partially responsible for American failures in Iraq and elsewhere.
His much-touted plan from the early years of the administration to “modernize” the army by focusing funding on small, high-tech forces has been somewhat responsible for the failure of the American occupation and rebuilding of Iraq.
Technology cannot win “hearts and minds,” as the planners of the Iraq war had hoped to do.
Clearly, Rumsfeld does not carry full responsibility for the failures of United States policy in Iraq. Yet he must bear some guilt for the outcome, if only because the war and the problems associated with it came to pass on his watch.
President Bush is unlikely to replace Rumsfeld in the immediate future because of the recent media coverage of the criticisms of his opponents.
Yet the President should have replaced him a year ago, when the failures of U.S. military policy became clear.
Furthermore, if the president were to take the unlikely step of replacing Rumsfeld now, it would send the clear message both domestically and to America’s foreign allies that the administration is looking to change course and abandon its previous unilateral positions.
Combined with other changes, that might be one way for the President to change course and salvage his thus-far unsuccessful second term.
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