http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rep-jim-mcdermott/transfer-secretary-rumsfe_b_24920.html Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld arrived on an unannounced visit to Iraq today and proclaimed: "Each time I come to Iraq I see progress.”
Iraq is a nation disintegrating into homicidal chaos. It is a country whose leaders acknowledge is on the brink of all-out civil war. But, the President’s Pentagon appointee, the man controlling the fate of 129,000 U.S. soldiers in Iraq, stands up and flat out misleads the troops who don’t get to go home to the U.S. at the end of the day, like Rumsfeld does.
America’s independent government watchdog agency, the General Accountability Office, just released a report that confirms the President does not have an adequate plan to stabilize Iraq, and the occupation by U.S. forces is fueling the sectarian violence.
Rumsfeld can claim things are getting better to reporters while standing inside a fortified U.S. base, but that flies in the face of the facts.
Three years later, the only plan the President and his Defense Secretary can articulate is to stay indefinitely. Our military generals know full well this so-called plan guarantees more needless U.S. casualties, and Iraqi leaders know it guarantees more sectarian violence.
In the past, I and others have called for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Today, I offer a better plan. The President should keep his political appointee. In fact, the President should transfer Secretary Rumsfeld to Iraq. He should be stationed there until every last U.S. solider leaves the nation we are now occupying.