I would like, nay love, someone in this administration to take responsibility for just about anything they have had a hand in. No one has found any WMD, there is a net loss of jobs, a general decline in civil rights, a legal and moral quagmire for anyone detained by the US Military (possibly 10,000 people), 9/11, this decision that further politicizes the health functions of the FDA. Lots of bad things have occured that no one in the administration seems to feel any need to admit they may have been a teensy little bit off on. But Rumsfeld should not resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Of course, Rumsfeld should resign. He may be good at planning a war (he did beat Iraq in less than three weeks), but he is awful at running post-war reconstruction or any other form of Operations-Other-Than-War for the US Military. There are lots of things that he is directly responsible for screwing up, but the prison he was not directly responsible for.
Forcing Rumsfeld to resign over the prison scandal is just wrong. He may be indirectly responsible, and if he feels sufficiently strongly that he is then he can table his resignation, but he is not directly responsible. He didn't torture anybody. He didn't stand by while someone else did it. It was not his responsibility to keep tabs on everything. People under him screwed up, and they should resign and be charged, but he did not do this.
Hold Rumsfeld accountable for the things he screwed up. Drag him before Congress. Have real Joint hearing on this war. Rake him over the coals. Don't go after him for this.
Posted by baltar at May 7, 2004 06:44 PM | TrackBack | Posted to Politics