Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Despite early reports all indicating that Donald Rumsfeld would
not be forced out of office over the election thumping, he has
this afternoon "stepped down" by mutual consent.
"Now after a series of thoughtful conversations, Secretary
Rumsfeld and I agreed that the time had come for new leadership
at the Pentagon," Bush said in an East Room press conference.
All indications suggest that, like Colin Powell after the 2004
election, Rumsfeld did not go quietly and was in fact pushed out
of the door, offered up as a sacrificial lamb as it were in an
attempt to re-arrange the deck chairs to steam valve a discontented
electorate.
At 8:07 a.m. this morning the AP put out a report titled Rumsfeld
spokesman says the defense chief gives no indication he will leave
early. Eric Ruff, the Pentagon press secretary, said
he participated in meetings with Rumsfeld on Wednesday morning
and heard no talk of changing war strategies or of Rumsfeld leaving
his post. He said he did not know whether Rumsfeld had talked
to President Bush about his future in light of the election results.
As little as two hours before the announcement came, Neocon mouthpiece
Fox News was carrying a story headlined Rumsfeld Has No Plans
to Step Down, Despite Democrat Gains. The headline has subsequently
been changed to Donald Rumsfeld Resigning as Defense Secretary.
Below is a google screenshot of the headline.
Just last week Bush made it clear that he had full faith in Rumsfeld
and that he would not be resigning no matter the outcome of the
election, despite the fact that all military news publications
had called
for him to be fired.
Rather than squashing speculation about Rumsfeld's future, it
has been speculated that Bush's strong and timely statement of
support set the stage for the defense secretary to depart without
appearing to have been pushed.
"Appearances in Washington are often the precise opposite
of what is actually transpiring," said Loren Thompson, a
Lexington Institute defense analyst with close ties to the military.
"In this case, a vote of confidence from the president may
make it easier for Rumsfeld to depart."
Soon to be House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it seems, also played
a part in Rumsfeld's axing.
This morning Pelosi had a "brief
meeting" with the President in which they presumably
agreed that Rumsfeld would be exited:
Pelosi said in her brief conversation with President Bush
on Wednesday morning, they talked about "their wish to work
in a bipartisan way" for the American people. "And I
think nowhere is that more necessary than with the problem in
Iraq," she added. Pressed by another reporter on
Iraq, Pelosi said President Bush must "signal a change of
direction." She said one good place to start would be to
"change the civilian leadership at the Pentagon" - get
rid of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in other words.
Pelosi is already
on
the record as saying that no impeachment proceedings
against President Bush, whether it be for deliberately lying a nation
into war or being complicit in 9/11, will take place.
"Impeachment is off the table....it's a pledge....it is
a waste of time," Pelosi told 60 Minutes recently. Have we
already seen "their wish to work in a bipartisan way"
in action today with the outright firing of Rumsfeld?
The Washington
Post earlier reported that Senior and former officials
close to Rumsfeld said he would not be driven out by Democrats
throwing their weight around in Congress. He has repeatedly said
he would not quit, and defense officials say criticism makes Rumsfeld
dig in his heels.
"He's not resigning," said one of those officials.
"He's best when he's criticized."
The Post also reported in the same article:
"The Democrats' victory in the House of Representatives
almost certainly ensures investigations into the Pentagon's management
of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some Democratic strategists and
congressional staff predict Rumsfeld will be not around for the
grilling."
In other words we have already witnessed Pelosi letting the first
Neocon clean off the hook. Whilst Democrats will laud the action
as an immediate swing of the axe, in reality Rumsfeld has got
away with a light bottom spanking. No doubt he can now scuttle
off to serve his days out on the board of multiple defense contractors
and rake in the profits from the killing spree he has overseen
in Iraq.
The ongoing trial of Saddam Hussein and the investigation of
his gassing of the Kurdish people, with weapons that Rumsfeld
personally delivered to him, also makes this a timely
point for Rumsfeld to make an exit. As does the fact that Rumsfeld
sold North Korea the means to go nuclear.
Rumsfeld's legacy will be one of a man who ceaselessly spewed
war propaganda, sent Iraq into total bedlam and got off scott
free. With the Democrats now at the Helm in Congress and Joining
in with the "Power and Perversion", as John Stewart
so succinctly put it, order out of chaos can be offered as the
solution.
The electorate has once again witnessed the Hegelian Dialectic
system of the elite power faction of America in operation. They
create the problem, they garner the reaction and they offer up
the solution and complete their long term agenda.
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