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| Bush Says U.S. Owes Rumsfeld ’Debt of Gratitude’ |
| 2004-05-10 |
| President Bush strongly backed Donald Rumsfeld on Monday and said the nation owed him a debt of gratitude, countering calls by some Democrats for the defense secretary to resign over his handling of the Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. After a meeting with Rumsfeld, military leaders and other top administration officials at the Pentagon, Bush told Rumsfeld, "Thank you for your leadership. You are courageously leading our nation in the war against terror." "You’re doing a superb job. You’re a strong secretary of defense and our nation owes you a debt of gratitude," Bush said. That’s settled. Let’s get back to the war. |
| Posted by:Mr. Davis |
| #2 My reading is that GWB will not dump any senior officials in the Pentagon. They are responsible for setting broad policy, not handling petty abuses. The media and the left may be up in arms about it, but I doubt GWB really thinks that these incidents are anything more than a footnote to the Iraqi campaign. He is putting out all these mea culpas to retain the votes of liberals who are hawkish but too squeamish to accept the idea of using torture to extract information. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2004-05-10 2:49:01 PM |
| #1 thoughts 1. Dubya knows more than we do, and is on secure ground on this - he knows nothing much worse will come out, and he knows where in the chain it stops, and he knows Rummy is not negligent. If so, then good 2.Gnawing worry A. Dubya, doesnt know the above, and is digging the hole deeper. Perhaps he knows how politically damaging tossing Rummy would be, and is putting keeping the base over strategic concerns 3. Gnawing worry B. Dubya is commited to Rummy, but will toss Wolfie and Feith, who arent as personally popular with the base, but are disliked by the left, by the Euros,by Powell and by the army. This goes along with giving up on democratization in Iraq, and going with a pro-US authoritarian regime as the best fallback 4. Hopeful thought - Dubya may not know the details of Rummys negligence, but hes got intell that this isnt hurting on the ground in Iraq and the Arab street as much as some think. 5.More realistic thought - Nothing in the above article reads as an absolute commitment to Rummy. Dubya has left himself plenty of wiggle room. If more comes out, he can evaluate that and act then. Conclusion - Dubya far smarter than left makes out. |
| Posted by: Liberalhawk 2004-05-10 2:34:54 PM |