Friday, February 04, 2011

McCain slaps Rumsfeld


McCain takes a swipe at Rumsfeld:

Sen. John McCain said he "thank[s] God" that former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld stepped down from the post in 2006 and didn't lead the Pentagon's strategy in Iraq during the last two years of George W. Bush's presidency.

"I respect Secretary Rumsfeld," McCain said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," before quickly changing his tone. "He and I had a very, very strong difference of opinion about the strategy he was employing in Iraq, which I predicted was doomed to failure. Thank God he was relieved of his duties and we put the surge in. Otherwise, we would have had a disastrous defeat in Iraq."

A swipe of retaliation:

McCain's comments came in response to a question about the depiction of the Arizona senator in Rumsfeld's memoir, "Known and Unknown," in which he's described as having a "hair-trigger temper" and "a propensity to shift his positions to appeal to the media."

Not terribly juicy -- besides, does anyone really care what either of these two has to say these days?

Regardless, it's hard to disagree with Rummy on this one, and I suppose McCain's quite right as well that it was better not to have Rummy at the Pentagon anymore, even if he overstates the "success" of the surge.

Why, oh why, can't all the warmongers just get along?

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posted by Michael J.W. Stickings at 12:30 PM

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2 Comments:

  • It's easy to criticize a failed strategy in Iraq after the fact. But during it, and in the lead up to the 2008 election, he had nothing but good things to say about the war effort. As is usually the case with McCain, he is critical when it's safe to be critical. – read his commentary on Real Clear Politics in 2005 to get an understanding of how much he actually disagreed with Rumsfeld's war strategy: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-11_11_05_SJM.html

    By Blogger Muddy Politics, at 1:12 PM  

  • Good point. Maybe we should call him McWeathervane.

    By Blogger Capt. Fogg, at 8:47 AM  

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