Rumsfeld

I've been a little irritated with the fuss over Rumsfeld these last days, the calls for him to resign.

My irritation is not that I'm a big Rumsfeld fan. It's that it's ultimately not his fault--it's President Bush's. No one who voted for Bush this last election has any right to complain about what's going on in Iraq right now. Although many scoffed at the phrase, Kerry was at least dead on with the phrase "wrong war, wrong time, wrong place," and I watched in awe as President Bush feebly responded with his, "Shh! Hold your voice down. You wouldn't want to discourage the troops, you unamerican!"

I have confidence that the troops will do what needs to be done. We're in this mess regardless of whether we should be or not, and we'd better not leave the country in worse shape than it was when we came. That certainly means hundreds more American lives. Infuriating, yes, but now our moral duty. And our men and women will see the job through.

But wrong war--we were fighting terrorism and bin Laden in particular. Now we've helped his recruiting and added the Baathists of Iraq.

Wrong time--dethroning Hussein was a good goal, no complaints with the goal. But this was not the time to invade.

Wrong place--bin Laden was in Afghanistan/Pakistan, not Iraq. Frankly, the most potent place is Israel. We've done nothing here in the spark point.

Don't blame Rumsfeld for the loss of life. Blame the neo-cons in Washington who convinced Bush that the Iraqis would stream flowers before our tanks. Idiots.