Rumsfeld's Fall Drags Hawks in Its Wake
by Jim Lobe
Despite White House efforts to put an end to the controversy, the battle over the fate of Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld shows little sign of abating.
And the outcome, which is by no means certain, could well determine the trajectory of U.S. policy in key areas - including Iraq, Iran, and even China - through the remaining two and a half years of George W. Bush's presidency.
While the unprecedented calls by six retired generals for his resignation have focused primarily on his competence, management style, and strategy for invading and occupying Iraq, Rumsfeld's departure would almost certainly cripple the coalition of neoconservative and aggressive nationalist war hawks in and around the administration for the remainder of Bush's term.
That is why the hawks outside the administration, led by the neoconservative editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, appear anxious to persuade Bush himself that the current campaign against his defense secretary is really aimed at him.
"[O]n Friday Mr. Bush said he still has every confidence [in Rumsfeld]," the Journal stated. "We suspect the president understands that most of those calling for Mr. Rumsfeld's heart are really longing for his."
Teamed with his former protégé and longtime close friend, Vice President Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld has enjoyed remarkable influence over U.S. foreign policy, as well as Pentagon operations, for most of the past five years.
Indeed, within five hours of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and the Pentagon itself, it was Rumsfeld who was the first to suggest that the U.S. respond by attacking Iraq, as well as al Qaeda. According to contemporaneous notes taken by an aide, he called for the U.S. to "go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not."
Like Cheney, he has also been a steadfast hawk on Syria, Iran, and China, and his efforts to greatly expand the Pentagon's role in covert action at the expense of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and in dispensing military aid to foreign allies at the expense of the State Department have given his department unprecedented influence in bilateral relations with friends and foes alike.
Given Bush's record low approval ratings - as well as the dissent Rumsfeld's performance has stirred up among the military brass and, for that matter, on Capitol Hill - any successor likely to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate will almost certainly have to be less hawkish and not nearly as closely linked to Cheney. This would deprive the vice president, who was clearly the most important influence on U.S. foreign policy during Bush's first term, of his most important and effective ideological and operational ally.
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=8868
