Friday, April 14, 2006

Congressman Ford and Generals Agree: Rumsfeld Must Go

With each passing day, it becomes more clear that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has absolutely no clue what he is doing in Iraq.

For three years now Rumsfeld has displayed his arrogance as well as his ignorance to the American people.

Our soldiers have paid the price for Rumsfeld's blunders far too long. They deserve much better.

That is why today that I join Congressman Ford and a growing number of well respected military generals in calling for the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld.

As Congressman Ford said in a release this week:

“For the sake of our country and the safety of our troops, President Bush should accept the resignation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld has lost the confidence of his peers, subordinates and the thousands of men and women who bravely and selflessly serve this country.”

Congressman Ford is right, this must take place for the sake of our country and the saftey of our troops.

Three well respected former generals also agree with that assessment:

When asked who should resign, General Anthony Zinni said “Secretary of defense, to begin with... those that have been responsible for the planning, for overriding all the efforts that were made in planning before that, those that stood by and allowed this to happen, that didn't speak out... I think they have to be held accountable.”

General Anthony C. Zinni
Former Commander, United States Central Command
Sunday, April 2 Meet the Press

“Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld is not competent to lead our armed forces. First, his failure to build coalitions with our allies from what he dismissively called ‘old Europe’ has imposed far greater demands and risks on our soldiers in Iraq than necessary. Second, he alienated his allies in our own military, ignoring the advice of seasoned officers and denying subordinates any chance for input. In sum, he has shown himself incompetent strategically, operationally and tactically, and is far more than anyone else responsible for what has happened to our important mission in Iraq. Mr. Rumsfeld must step down.”

Major General Paul D. Eaton
United States commander of training Iraqi security forces 2003-2004
Sunday, March 19 New York Times

“[T]he commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions--or bury the results... a fundamentally flawed plan was executed for an invented war, while pursuing the real enemy, al-Qaeda, became a secondary effort.”

Lt. General Gregory Newbold
Former Director of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Sunday, April 17 Time Magazine

When former generals like this start speaking out and calling for Rumsfeld to go, the American people can take it to heart because these are the guys who know best.

In accordance to Rumsfeld resigning, the President needs to bring someone in who has credibility in both foreign policy being honest and and a person who can get broad appeal from both sides of the political isle.

I can think of no one better than Colin Powell.

Powell is a man who is respected throughout the world and clearly knows what he is doing.

If these two things happen, I am confident that confidence will be restored and our mission in Iraq will be helped greatly.

Hopefully the President will step to the plate and do what is right for America.

We deserve better.

100 Days

Days of Congressional Inaction on Ethics

Above is the number of days that have passed since Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to bribing Congressman.

It is also the number of days in which Congress has failed to pass an ethics reform bill that would limit private travel, ski and golf junkets, and would call for a full disclosure of expenses by lobbyists on members of Congress.

It is time for Congress to step up and pass an ethics reform bill that would do all of the above. In addition, it is time to end the pork barrel spending system as we know it and establish an independent ethics commission that would review ethics complaints against members of Congress.

I am proud Congressman Harold Ford Jr. is fighting for that reform!

Read Congressman Ford's call for reform of the House rules here!