Two days before he resigned as defense secretary, Donald H. Rumsfeld submitted a classified memo to the White House that acknowledged that the Bush administrations strategy in Iraq was not working and called for a major course correction…
…the memo calls for examination of ideas that roughly parallel troop withdrawal proposals presented by some of the White Houses sharpest Democratic critics…
The “Above the Line” options — ones that “could and, in a number of cases, should be done” — include:
* Conduct an accelerated draw-down of U.S. bases. We have already reduced from 110 to 55 bases. Plan to get down to 10 to 15 bases by April 2007, and to 5 bases by July 2007…
* Withdraw U.S. forces from vulnerable positions cities, patrolling, etc. and move U.S. forces to a Quick Reaction Force (QRF) status, operating from within Iraq and Kuwait, to be available when Iraqi security forces need assistance.
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Ha! Democrats have long castigated Rummy for “mismanaging” the war. Now that he sounds like the chairman of the Baker/Hamilton panel, watch as his critics morph him into a visionary.
How about a Canadian stand point.Win this war at any cost.It shouldn’t have come to this and bad paths have been taken,but.This war is the worst thing to happen to America ever, and if you lose you will lose everything americans have fought so great for since ww2, in terms of the worlds respect and integrity towards your nation.
Donald “McNamera” Rumsfield has screwed this up because of his fixation on transformation, and his insistance on reducing the armed forces. He has fought this war on the cheap, planned for it on the cheap and has ignored military advice and opinion. Good Riddance.