Saturday, September 6, 2003

Iraq War: Signs of the Times

Rummy says things are going just dandy in Iraq.  We've made a "wonderful start" on the rebuilding of New Iraq.

Meanwhile, the Spanish newspaper El Mundo is reporting that an American C-141 military transport plane was attacked by surface-to-air missiles Saturday morning at Baghdad's airport.  Fortunately, they missed.

Democratic Representative David Obey of Wisconsin is calling on Rummy to resign:

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., told reporters that those and other steps were needed to "restore some degree of confidence" in the Bush administration's ability to manage the U.S. role in Iraq.

"They have made repeated and serious miscalculations - miscalculations that have been extremely costly to the American people" in lost lives, taxpayers' dollars, a weakened U.S. global defense posture and frayed relations with allies, Obey said.

He said his constituents were "more deeply divided and polarized than at any time in my 34 years in Congress" - a period that included Vietnam and Watergate.

One of Obey's home-state newspapers, the Madison (WI) Capital Times supports his suggestion.  Because of their "shoot-first, think-later strategy", the editors ask:

Is there anyone in the world who seriously believes that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz handled preparation for and execution of the U.S. invasion of Iraq appropriately, or that they are doing so now?

Actually, Rummy and Wolfowitz probably do.  Dick Cheney, too.  But Obey and the Capital Times are right about their failures in Iraq.

- Bruce Miller

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