GENERAL RICHARD MYERS talks about Donald Rumsfeld.
Meanwhile, Laura Lee Donoho emails: “My son emails me from Iraq that he and his fellow troops are in a funk about the resignation of Don Rumsfeld. This is the first time in a long time that President Bush has really pissed me off.”
And she’s posted some further thoughts here.
UPDATE: Newt Gingrich: “‘If the president had decided to replace Secretary Rumsfeld he should have told us two weeks ago.” Tom Bevan agrees.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Will Rumsfeld’s departure hurt reeinlistment rates?
When all is said and done in connection with the Pentagon management shakeup, the Baker commission report and the Dems actively taking control of the legislative branch, I for one will be watching the reenlistment rate among the troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. I suspect many troops will opt to return to civilian life if they feel that they no longer have support from the policymakers, rather than be jerked around by people who think like John Kerry. And if the re-up rate goes down, original enlistments will probably decrease, too. Nobody wants to fight in a war that the movers and shakers don’t want to win. That was true in Korea and Vietnam, and it’s true now.
Any new trends should be apparent by March or so, if they are to happen. I guarantee you that any such change will be spun by the lamestream media as Bush’s fault, probably accompanied by NYT and WaPo opinion pieces bemoaning what a dumb thing it was to get rid of Rumsfeld.
It sure would be interesting if Charlie Rangel’s (D-NY) idea of reinstating the draft had to be implemented by a Democratic congress in order to maintain military force levels. I wonder what the political fallout from that would be in ’08.
As an aside, I also think that diminished capacity of our conventional forces, especially the Army and Marines, tends to make nuclear war more likely, because weakness encourages the enemy to attack, and when you must fight, you fight with what you have.
Nothing promotes war like weakness.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Okay, here’s a theory: Rumsfeld’s out. Gates is supposed to succeed him. Dems try to block Gates out of sheer obstructionist behavior. Gates is withdrawn and in comes . . . Joe Lieberman as SecDef! With his seat going to an appointee of the GOP governor.
Nah, if they were that smart they’d still control Congress.