Rumsfeld has to go, urges military pressGeoff Elliott, Washington correspondent06nov06ONE of the most respected journals covering the US military has called for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to be sacked, adding to the chorus urging President George W. Bush to oust the Iraq war architect.News of the coming editorial in the influential Army Times and other military periodicals came as leading neoconservative Richard Perle, who chaired a committee of Pentagon policy advisers early in the Bush administration, stunned foreign policy experts with the admission that if he had his time over again, he would not have supported the invasion of Iraq. The timing, just days from mid-term congressional elections where anti-Iraq war sentiment looks set to deliver big gains to the Democrats, could not be worse for the Bush administration, which is looking increasingly isolated. But it was greeted with some irony in Washington, as the condemnation of Mr Rumsfeld over the botched occupation of Iraq came on the eve of the verdict on Saddam Hussein for his command of a massacre of 148 Shi'ites in 1982.. "The time has come, Mr President, to face the hard bruising truth," said an editorial appearing in the November 13 issues of the weekly Military Times group of newspapers, which include the Army Times, Navy Times, Air Force Times and Marine Corps Times. "Donald Rumsfeld must go. Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. "And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt."more...
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