Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Times: "Rumsfeld is losing control..."

[Clarkie1]

MSNBC staff and news service reports
Updated: 10 minutes ago

Just days after President Bush publicly affirmed Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's job security through the end of his term, a family of publications catering to the military will publish an editorial calling for the defense secretary's removal.

The editorial, released to NBC News on Friday ahead of its Monday publication date, stated, "It is one thing for the majority of Americans to think Rumsfeld has failed. But when the nation's current military leaders start to break publicly with their defense secretary, then it is clear that he is losing control of the institution he ostensibly leads."

The editorial will appear just one day before the midterm election, in which GOP candidates have been losing ground, according to recent polls.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15552211/

[spindrifter]

1. This is the palace coup in operation!

[Ilsa]

2. I heard this on KO! Wow, the folk in the military are going to be

worked over pretty good by this I hope. I was listening to NPR the other night about family members of troops over in Iraq still supporting Bush, but maybe this will make them reconsider. Seriously, the comments were about "Dems kissing our enemies' butts," and shit like that. Wait till thye read how the top Brass all bailed out when they realized that countering Rumsferatu meant a firing or demotion, etc, so they all left when they were ready to move on.

[MadMaddie]

3. It was a facade to begin with......

He had no idea of what he was doing and he still doesn't.....

[RoyGBiv]

4. Snippet from a letter ...

I have a friend who is career Navy. He's been in since we graduated high school, back in the 80's. My friend is fairly apolitical. He sees his job in a non-political context. He votes, typically for Republicans because, in his words, Republicans have traditionally been more prone to offer pay increases to people in the service. I don't argue with him much. His typical day at work is harder than my typical year. I let him know I don't agree, and I offer him evidence of why I disagree, but I leave it at that. He has right to his opinion, regardless of its validity.

Recently he and I have taken up an e-mail exchange with a frequency that has not been present since the first days of the first Gulf War, back when I was certain he was going to die. I wonder sometimes if subconsciously we're both having that same fear again ... but I digress.

In one of his e-mails to me recently, he wrote these words.

"He (Rumsfeld) is a shit stain. You remember (teacher from high school we both at the time thought was the epitome of "idiot")? This guy is her x 10. I hear he has worse breath too. ha ha. I didn't have plans to retire before Dumbfeld started ordering us around. Now I think this tour is my last. Sometimes I think he wants us all dead. You know we have Chiefs on the ground on his orders? That didn't go over good."

I won't go into the rest. That's enough. The soldiers know, and I think that's more important even that the leaders knowing. You can conveniently change leaders to those that will agree with you no matter what. You can't just change the rest on a whim.

[lovuian]

5. its called a Millitary Rebellion

No one wants to die for a Crook

[The Backlash Cometh]

6. Yeah, take your bird flu profits and just go!

[cornermouse]

7. Bush, Inc. has tried to apply the "business model" across the

entire spectrum; cut costs and increase "profits". Unfortunately our troops and our military operations are not a business. Social services is not a business for those who need and receive them. The fact is the "business model" is really only good for the owner and a few select top level executives. Its time to turn the clock back to pre-Dubya days.

[Toots]

8. How did Bush* do on his other business ventures?

Must have applied the same model I guess......

[cornermouse]

9. True, but I've been thinking about that.

Several centuries ago, back in the 70s a member of my family was working for a medium size business that was running a profit. It was bought by a company from out-of-state who promptly started doing things which caused the company to start losing money (it appeared deliberate in intent). The out-of-state company used the loss to help them avoid taxes. Eventually, they located another victim and sold our company to someone local, who within a short period of time, had the company turning a profit again.

I sort of wonder if that doesn't partially explain Bush's failure in business. Then again, its probably pretty hard to run a company efficiently and profitably if you're a party animal and take numerous, exceptionally long vacations...

[Kierkegaard]

10. "..probably pretty hard to run a company efficiently and profitably if you're a party animal.."

Doesn't help if you're a cement-headed moron, either! This guy couldn't operate a lemonade stand without a major failure of some kind.

[MsKandice01]

11. Why do the troops hate America?

[civildisoBDence]

12. This isn't simply an opinion column...it's an editorial

and represents the position of the four newspapers themselves.

Not quite the military mutinying, but close...very close.

The military itself is saying much the same thing, under its breath, for obvious reasons.

Newsprism

[Spider Jerusalem]

13. And here's a link to the editorial:

http://www.armytimes.com/print.php?f=1-292925-2333360.php