The past few days have not made me breathe any easier or feel any better about those who are in charge being in charge. It started with Rumsfeld throwing his splendid tantrum during his press conference at the Pentagon on Thursday. Even though this administration has mismanaged the entire operation from the outset, those who question are supposed to "back off" and "realize it's difficult. We're looking out into the future. No one can predict the future with absolute certainty."Hmmmm. I seem to recall predictions of troops being greeted as liberators being made with absolute certainty. I recall being told there were WMD's with absolute surety. I recall being told Saddam had attempted to build nuclear weapons with absolute certainty. Now we are not making proclamations with absolute certainty and we have never been "stay the course" either. Lets all open our hymnals and sing from the same page.
Also on Thursday we learned that the Army will experience an $18Billion dollar shortfall for fiscal operating year 2008. That's a slap in the face. The Army has born the brunt of this war in both personnel and materiel.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, the Army chief of staff, had requested $138 billion for FOY 2008. He has informed both administration officials and Congress the Army needs the money to replace and repair equipment used in Iraq, and to pay for other costs of the war, while still covering the day-to-day expenses to run the Army. Rumsfeld would not confirm the numbers Thursday and said any budget discussions are not final. He suggested that some money for the Army could come from supplemental budget requests. "It is very difficult to know what ought to go in the budget and what ought to go in the supplemental," Rumsfeld said.
Then on Friday, Pentagon Press Secretary Eric Ruff blatantly played politics in a news conference. He said that al Qae'da was stepping up attacks against Americans in Iraq because they wanted to have an effect on the outcome of the upcoming midterm elections. His words were measured to imply electing Democrats would please 'the terrorists who want to kill us all' (TM). "It would seem that if they can increase the violence, they can increase opposition to the war and have an influence against the president," Mr Ruff said. He actually cast the struggle by Iraqi insurgents as a "battle for the hearts and minds of the American people." He also said Iraqi insurgents "know this is a battle for the resolve of the American people. And if they can influence elections and get the American people to get tired of this war through their attacks, I think they see something."
When pressed, Mr Ruff said there were other explanations for the spike in violence, including heightened insurgent activity during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and stepped-up US military operations in Baghdad.
Rumsfeld was right about one thing: "It's a political season," he said. "And everyone's trying to make a little mischief out of this, and turn it into a political football."
Even the Pentagon.
