Dummy Rummy

President Bush instructed us this week that he is “a decider,” and apparently never changes course after a decision is made, no matter how poor or disastrous his judgment.

And since he feels that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has been doing a good job, he has decided to ignore the growing calls for Rummy’s ouster.

But that hasn’t kept Rummy from mounting a media campaign to counter the spate of recently retired military generals urging his firing.

Rummy recently assured the press of his commitment to his office, of the long hours he keeps and the large number of meetings taken with military leaders in the last year. A commitment to the nation and the urgency he feels to fight terrorism are all he believes he needs.

But Rumsfeld doesn’t seem to understand or accept that nobody doubts his work ethic or his desire to serve. They doubt his judgment.

And with good reason. In direct opposition to supporters like extreme conservative Bill Bennett, who asserted on CNN that the mistakes made in Iraq were not Rummy’s fault, it has become clear that the decision to invade Iraq with a “light force”, the decision to ignore long-standing invasion planning, the decision to go in without a plan for securing the peace, and the decision to disband the Iraqi army were ALL made or authorized by Rumsfeld.

These grotesque and tragic blunders, which were made against the judgment of many top military leaders, were neither trivial nor forgivable, and go directly to the question of competence. By his actions, Rumsfeld has proven that he does not have the stuff necessary to lead our nation’s military.

That he remains the Secretary of Defense is a testament not to his effectiveness but to the political calculations of President Bush and his advisors, who would rather keep a loser in office than risk looking like failures themselves. But their chance to save face has long passed. And the tragic incompetence of Donald Rumsfeld remains.