Aw, Leave The Poor Guy Alone
232 words.
It seems like everyone thinks Donald Rumsfeld is single-handedly responsible for everything bad that’s happened over the last 5 years, and simply removing him from office will immediately restore the world to the happy Utopian paradise it was before 2001. Personally I think people are giving him a little too much credit. It’s like an owner firing the head coach of a losing football team in the middle of the season in the hope that it will “spark” the team to win more. It never works. It might count as a political victory, but those don’t mean much when it comes time for the postseason. (I don’t know what the “postseason” would be in terms of Iraq, but I still think it’s a neat metaphor.)
Also, I have some experience working with government bureaucracy and the sloth-like speed with which changes are implemented, and I feel pretty confident in saying that replacing Rumsfeld now will not have any tangible effect on military policy for at least the remainder of the Bush presidency. Besides, Rove would just pick a replacement with the exact same minimalistic military philosophy anyway. And even if the replacement did decide to double the number of troops in Iraq, which might well provide the solution everyone wants, it would be political suicide. At this point, the average short-sighted American isn’t likely to buy into sending more troops over there.
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