Donald Rumsfeld resigns
Donald Rumsfeld resigned.
Faced with the collapse of his Republican majority in Congress, President Bush responded today with a series of conciliatory measures, firing his secretary of defense, extending an olive branch to Democrats and vowing to strike a new tone of bi-partisanship after years of partisan rancor.
Just days after telling reporters that he would keep Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld on with him for the rest of his term, Mr. Bush said that the two had agreed “after a series of thoughtful conversations” that it was time for Mr. Rumsfeld to go. The president asked Robert M. Gates, who served as director of central intelligence under Mr. Bush’s father, to serve as his new defense secretary.
If he is confirmed as defense secretary, Robert M. Gates would take control of a military whose ground forces are stretched and strained by a costly and bloody war and whose officers yearn to give unvarnished military advice without fear of reprisal.
Addressing their needs, hearing their views and gaining their trust are widely viewed as crucial first steps toward any change Mr. Gates has in mind for prosecuting the war in Iraq.
“Task No. 1 is to generate the strategy for victory in Iraq,” said one senior officer who served under Donald H. Rumsfeld. “A critical enabler of that, in my view, is getting the right information from the right people. One source — one source — of right information is the senior uniformed military who have to be empowered to speak the truth.”
It may not be easy for Mr. Gates to repair the strained communications with the uniformed military, said another officer, who recalled that sessions with the outgoing defense secretary have been nicknamed “the wire-brush treatment” because of Mr. Rumsfeld’s brusque style of questioning. Like others, this officer spoke on condition of anonymity out of military tradition.
Mr. Gates is a member of the independent panel reviewing America’s strategy on Iraq for President Bush, and his influence on that group’s recommendations can hardly be diminished by his selection to run the Pentagon. Little is known about his views on recommendation’s by the panel, which is led by other heavy hitters: former Secretary of State James A Baker III and former Representative Lee Hamilton.
The group has been to Iraq and heard from the military already. But that was before the announcement that Mr. Rumsfeld would be leaving.
At the same time, Mr. Gates likely will move to correct an unintended side effect of Mr. Rumsfeld’s management of the armed services, as the Army and Air Force already have moved outside regular budget channels to make their case for more money directly to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, breaking decades of agreed rules even as Pentagon spending grows to historic levels.
Just as important as improving trust between the Pentagon’s civilian leaders and the senior officers is to mend relations between senior officers and the military’s next generation of generals and admirals — some of whom see their elders as not standing up to Mr. Rumsfeld and his inner circle of political appointees when they disagreed with planning for the war in Iraq and the counter-insurgency effort.
Course corrections for Iraq are certainly anticipated, but officials predicted that Mr. Rumsfeld’s push for future military transformation — a primary goal of Mr. Rumsfeld — would become a secondary priority as Mr. Gates deals with the array of challenges that threaten to overwhelm both the military and its budget.
“Gates will focus less on transformation and more on understanding the world around us,” one Pentagon official said.
Senior military officers and Pentagon civilians, speaking today after President Bush announced the resignation of Mr. Rumsfeld, said Mr. Gates’s long experience in intelligence is well suited to lead the military’s global campaign against terrorism.
Mr. Gates will face a Congress, especially a Democrat-controlled House, that is less hostile to him than it might have been to Mr. Rumsfeld had he continued.
nytimes
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