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Getting Rid of Rumsfeld
Doesn’t Really Solve the Problem By Joshua Robin May 10, 2004 This week everyone
has been clamoring for the resignation or the firing of Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld. This criticism is
pretty understandable, being that he is the Defense Secretary he is
responsible for the actions of the United States arm forces. In doing I would say
people want to both hold people responsible and, “deal with the
problem.” Getting rid of Rumsfeld
would in no way deal with the problem.
If Rumseld were to
resign or be fired today we would be without a Secretary of Defense. Although his deputy would most likely move
into place an actual replacement would have to be nominated and then
subjected to the review of the congress.
Being that this is an election year the whole process would become
overly partisan and would probably take more time than is left in the
President’s term. I don’t really think
that this would accomplish a whole lot and this surely would not solve the
complex problem we have. At this time we have
many problems relating to Iraq an dour treatment of prisoners in general,
foremost being that we have to change the direction or the occupation and
improve the world’s perception of the United States and what we are doing. What do we need to
do? We need to start by
re-evaluation the policies in our military run prisons such as those in Iraq and Guantanamo. A good deal of this evaluation may have
already been done but it is unclear if it has been looked at and what action
has been taken. I think we need to
make our best efforts to work inside of all laws both domestic and
international, be it the Geneva Conventions or military prison rules.
These rules are there for a prison and we shouldn’t try to write
them. As with a prison such as camp X-
Ray in Cuba we should determine rights and regulations by way of some sort of
international rule building committee.
Yes, this may not create the exact situations that we want but it will
serve prisoners right. This would also
build some international good will. Second, we need to
take a real look at what we are doing in Iraq. Let’s devise some specific rules
for the prisons with the Iraqis input included. Also, let’s get rid of Abu Ghraib prison,
lets just blow the darn place up and build a new prison. The whole time we must make this all very
clear to the Arab world and the rest of the world. Lastly, in Iraq, we must work to do the right
thing. That will take a lot. Doing the right thing in the long term
however, will serve us well. If it is the current
administration that does this well that is great. If we need to vote them out of office well
then that is what needs to be done and I believe will be done. Creating a huge partisan fight over
Rumsfeld surely wont help the situation though. Doing the job right will trump any of
this. This will take time
but as I have said in the past we must stay the course. |
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