Robert Gates was especially candid today at his hearings to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee that we're not winning the war in Iraq. Then he turned around after the lunch break and said, as a "clarification," we're not losing the war either, but rather, we're somewhere in between. Look, we can't stop the violence, the elected government can't get control of the country, and we're bankrupting ourselves trying to turn things around. If we're not winning, we're losing!
Rumsfeld, meanwhile, wrote a memo just before his "resigmissal" (it was either a resignation or a dismissal, but I can't figure out which; heck, I still can't figure out whether former Secretary of State Alexander Haig quit or was fired by the Reagan administration in 1982!) suggesting a different course because of the quagmire in Iraq at present. He couldn't have been trying to save his job; a change of course is the last thing Bush wants. More likely, Rummy was trying to shame the President before he was forced out, but that can't be right either. . . Bush has no shame! :-O
Over at the United Nations, John Bolton and his moustache are out. He quit when he realized he didn't have the support in the Senate to be confirmed for a permanent appointment. Bush isn't happy about this, citing Bolton's expertise in arms control and his desire to reform the United Nations. But one thing Bolton proved in his sixteen months as our voice and conscience at Turtle Bay (the Manhattan neighborhood where the UN is located) was that he lacked the necessary diplomatic skills in getting along with others. An overwhelming majority of UN ambassadors detested him and hated working with him. Though an inability to work with a team would get you fired from several jobs in the private sector, Bush actually wanted Bolton to stay on at the UN in spite of - or maybe even because of - his intransigence.
Then again, he did give George Tenet and Paul Bremer medals for getting Iraq wrong. :-O
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment