3.25.2006
Knives Out for Rumsfeld (SMH.com.au)
By Mark Coultan Herald Correspondent in New York
March 25, 2006
WITH more than a tinge of bitterness, the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has brushed off calls for his resignation.
The third anniversary of the start of the Iraq war led to a bout of self-analysis in America about the course and direction of the war, with much of the criticism focused on Mr Rumsfeld, who appears to be losing support even among people who otherwise support the Bush Administration.
The criticism started with the publication of a new book on the conduct of the war by the military correspondent of The New York Times, Michael Gordon, and Bernard Trainor, which says Mr Rumsfeld ignored generals in the field who wanted to deal with the insurgency during the early parts of the war instead of pressing on to Baghdad.
David Brooks, the paper's prominent conservative columnist, also called for Mr Rumsfeld's resignation last week, in what appears to be a growing conservative movement of supporting the war but condemning its execution.
Mr Rumsfeld provoked some of the criticism himself in an article in which he compared leaving Iraq to handing Germany back to the Nazis after World War II.
(More ... Knives out for Rumsfeld - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 12:11
March 25, 2006
WITH more than a tinge of bitterness, the US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, has brushed off calls for his resignation.
The third anniversary of the start of the Iraq war led to a bout of self-analysis in America about the course and direction of the war, with much of the criticism focused on Mr Rumsfeld, who appears to be losing support even among people who otherwise support the Bush Administration.
The criticism started with the publication of a new book on the conduct of the war by the military correspondent of The New York Times, Michael Gordon, and Bernard Trainor, which says Mr Rumsfeld ignored generals in the field who wanted to deal with the insurgency during the early parts of the war instead of pressing on to Baghdad.
David Brooks, the paper's prominent conservative columnist, also called for Mr Rumsfeld's resignation last week, in what appears to be a growing conservative movement of supporting the war but condemning its execution.
Mr Rumsfeld provoked some of the criticism himself in an article in which he compared leaving Iraq to handing Germany back to the Nazis after World War II.
(More ... Knives out for Rumsfeld - World - smh.com.au) ¶ 12:11
