Retired US Iraq general demands Rumsfeld resign
This article is from Reuter's (above)
I totally agree with the comments below and with the article referenced. We need a fresh start in the Pentagon, and we cannot wait until the next Presidential cycle in 2008. Rumsfeld needs to go. He has failed since the "end of the war" declaration.
He succeeded in toppling Sadam, but after that, he has been a complete failure, as have any and all policies coming out of the Pentagon with respect to rebuilding IRAQ.
We need new leadership, fresh ideas, and a strategy that wins the support of all of the factions in IRAQ, as well as the American people. What is going on now is a farce, because we take 2 steps forward and then 3 steps back. Read this article and these quotes about which, I totally and completely agree.
"He defined success in the war as 'setting the Iraqi people up for self-reliance with their form of representative government that takes into account tribal, ethnic and religious differences that have always defined Iraqi society.'
'Iraqis, frankly, in my experience, do not understand democracy. Nor do they understand their responsibilities for a free society,' Batiste said.
This (above) is the essence of the problem. These people in IRAQ have been exposed to tribal thinking and tribal conflicts for centuries. For a democracy to work, there has to be a common bond, a common ground from which to rise up and to succeed in building a new life together, from which goods and services are produced, then sold, and from which a general respect for one another is acheived.
This is not inherent in the make up of IRAQ society in general. It takes many many years to achieve this, not 2 or 3, but 25-50 or 100 years.
We have to start all over. Rumsfeld did his duty, but it is time for him to go.
