WaPo’s Richard Cohen Raps Rumsfeld

Cohen’s Op/Ed piece today, “Let Rumsfeld Go”, is right on the money. “If there has been a worse secretary of defense,” Cohen wrote, “it could only be Robert McNamara.” McNamara told President Lyndon Johnson the Gulf of Tonkin lie that got us into the war in Vietnam. Cohen went on to say, “Under Rumsfeld's plan, the United States never had enough troops on the ground -- still doesn't, actually. It was Rumsfeld who thought the United States would get into Iraq and then swiftly get out -- leaving nation-building to the United Nations and similar agencies, maybe the Boy Scouts. He dismissed the looting that stripped Iraq bare following the war, setting the stage for the chaos and lawlessness that persist to this day. He made Jay Garner the viceroy of Iraq and then replaced him with L. Paul "Jerry" Bremer, who sacked the Iraqi army and much of the bureaucracy -- a huge mistake. Under Rumsfeld, just about nothing has gone right.” Yesterday, Rumsfeld said the press was too concerned with the death of soldiers in Iraq and not concerned enough with the positive things that are happening in Iraq. Since there is so little to crow about in Iraq, and since our soldiers are dying in an unnecessary war that over-the-hill tin soldiers like Rumsfeld promoted because war is so much fun, Rumsfeld is off base (again), not the press. Cohen’s tag line summed it up nicely: “When it comes to Iraq, if the United States is going to stay, then Rumsfeld has to go.”