Fire Rumsfeld NOW!

If I said what I wanted to about Rumsfeld's latest patronizing comments, this page would be a blue streak across the country, it wouldn't be fit for a family audience. This arrogant, pathetic excuse of a man has once again disrepected and shown how little he regards the military that he supposedly leads. He doesn't care about them any more than Bush, Cheney or Rice do.

Rumsfeld recently visited Alaska to speak with family members of the 172nd Stryker unit whose tour in Iraq was extended just as they were preparing to come home after their one year deployment. The brigade's tour was extended by up to 120 days, bringing them close to a Christmas return date. Rumsfeld said he would make no promises that the full brigade would be back home by the holidays. "I'd love to be Santa Claus. I'm not," he told reporters. Rumsfeld is right, of course, he's not Santa Claus; he's the Grinch.

In an interview during his flight to Fairbanks, Rumsfeld said he saw no reason for the soldiers or their families to be angry at him. "“I don'’t put it in that context,"” he said. "“These people are all volunteers. They all signed up. They all are there doing what they'’re doing because they want to do it. They'’re proud of what they do. They do it very, very well."

When you call anyone "these people", it is patronizing and disrespectful. He (and his ilk) obviously feel more superior to "these people" who did volunteer to serve their country. The fact that Rumsfeld is their leader, as the Secretary of Defense, and I shudder to even write that, and that he speaks of these brave men and women in those kinds of terms is beyond contempt. His comments demonstrate his feeling that since "they" volunteered he can use them for anything he wants.

Former Secretary of State Kissingers was quoted in the book Kiss the Boys Goodbye: How the United States Betrayed Its Own POW'’s, "military men are just dumb, animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy". It seems this administration has the same respect and regard for our current military men and women and Kissinger's words still ring true today.

When people say to me that Ken was doing what he wanted, in some skewed sense of sympathy, I want to scream. Yes, he wanted to be a good soldier, he loved being a soldier and he loved being a leader. To order our military to illegally invade a sovereign country at the bidding of these cretins with their own political and fiscal agendas driven by greed is wrong no matter what you call it. To suggest that is what our soldiers wanted to do when they volunteered is insulting.

Rumsfeld says he saw no reason for the soldiers or the families in Alaska to be angry with him. Who should they be angry with? Rumsfeld has mismanaged this action in Iraq since before the war started. He has done little to mitigate the violence against the people who are in Iraq, civilians or military. From the lack of training, lack of body armor, lack of armored vehicles, lack of supplies, lack of food and lack of clean water (thank you Halliburton), this adminstration clearly shows what role they feel the soldiers have in winning their war on terror. No one in this adminstration understands what it is to be a soldier with boots on the ground in a war; few of them served. The same can be said for most members of Congress.

Fire Rumsfeld or allow him to resign NOW. I don't care, just get him out of our way. We need a Secretary of Defense who understands the sacred trust that our son's and daughters give to this country when they volunteer to sign up to serve. Rumsfeld is the wrong person to do this job.