Democrat 'thumping' hastens exit of Rumsfeld

So Rummy, the man known as the architect of the Iraq war has finally fallen on his sword.

At a handover ceremony at the White House, a tight-faced Mr Rumsfeld, the second longest serving defence secretary, made clear he was not departing voluntarily. "I have benefited from criticism," he said, quoting Winston Churchill, "and I have not lacked thereof". He will stay on until Mr Gates is confirmed by the Senate.

Rumsfeld has, more than almost any other member of the administration, come to signify the public face of Bush's White House. Arrogant and feisty with a complete disregard for other people's opinions and views.

He represented the neo-con mindset, the believe that reality could be fashioned by the sheer force of one's will.

His firing does not mean that this mindset disappears; indeed, it was still evident in Bush's comments that "we cannot accept defeat", implying - once again - that victory is something one achieves by the sheer force of one's will as opposed to an event that is shaped by facts on the ground.

The removal of Rumsfeld does not necessarily change the tone of this administration, the presence of Cheney is a guarantee of that.

What will be missing is Rumsfeld's ability to issue a bizarre statement with a totally straight face:

Once he famously said: "There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Cheney sitting there insisting, "I haven't read that piece so I can't possibly comment" simply doesn't possess the barn door lunacy that Rumsfeld specialised in.

However, despite Bush's claim that "we cannot accept defeat", the reality facing Rumsfeld's replacement is that the US is facing defeat on the ground (whether Bush accepts it or not) and there are many of us who can no longer see any face saving way out of this for the coalition.

This reality was reflected by commentators yesterday:

"I think that changing the Secretary of Defence is a way of creating the impression of change given the impossibility of the reality of change," said John Pike, director of the military studies group GlobalSecurity.org. "I don't know what [James] Baker is going to come up with but it's not going to be very different from what they are doing now."

Indeed, even Bush seemed to emphasise the limited options available:

Asked yesterday whether there would be a new direction in the war, Mr Bush told reporters: "Well, there's certainly going to be new leadership at the Pentagon.

Answers like the above may endear him to his base, but to most of us it simply sounds clueless.

The only hope is that Baker will go ahead and insist that the US engage in negotiations with Syria and Iran and that it is not already too late for that to have any impact on events on the ground.

Rummy leaves behind him a disaster on the scale of Katrina, a country teetering on the brink of civil war if, indeed, it is not already in one. I would strongly suggest that people read Woodward's "State of Denial" to appreciate fully the sheer scale of Rumsfeld's culpability.

For his dismissal to have had any real effect one can't help but think it should have come some years ago.

I genuinely wish his successor the very best, the task that he has been set is not an easy one.

However, the replacement of Rumsfeld signifies the real diminishment of Bush's power as he enters his last two years of governance. This has been brought about by the American public resoundingly rejecting in almost every state the ideas and values that Bush and his neo-con advocates have been pushing for the last six years.

These ideas and values have diminished America's standing throughout the planet to a degree that was unthinkable the day after 9-11.

Torture, suspension of Habeas Corpus and a claim of Presidential power that went way beyond anything any President had ever before claimed had become the hallmarks of Bush's enterprise.

The American public have stopped him in his tracks. Here in Europe it is popular to view Americans as largely disinterested in world politics. However, once again Bush played the fear card and the American public resoundingly ignored him.

For that, they are to be applauded.

Bush spoke yesterday of "bipartisan politics". Okay, he can talk the talk, lets see if he can walk the walk.

The man who has divided world opinion in a way that few previous President's have managed will need more than a few warm words to undo the suspicion and acrimony that his arrogant and misguided style of leadership have produced.

Indeed, from the few words Bush said on Iraq yesterday, one got the horrible feeling that he is simply proposing more of the same with "new leadership at the Pentagon".

That simply won't be acceptable.

tag: Rumsfeld, resignation, Bush, United, States, mid-term, elections, November, "Stay the course", Rumsfeld must go, Iraq war,