Via Reuters: Rumsfeld pre-resignation memo urged Iraq shift
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the White House before he resigned last month the Bush administration’s strategy in Iraq was not working and he proposed changes, including possible troop reductions, The New York Times reported on Saturday.“In my view it is time for a major adjustment. Clearly, what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough,” Rumsfeld said in the classified memo, dated November 6. The Times posted a copy of the memo along with an article about it on its Web site.
[...]
Rumsfeld outlined several options in the memo for policy changes, including reductions in U.S. forces and bases in Iraq as well as a recasting of the U.S. mission and goals there, but he endorsed no specific recommendations.
He said, however, a multiparty conference modeled after the 1995 Dayton, Ohio, talks that led to a peace agreement ending the Bosnian war was a “less-attractive” option, as was continuing on the current path.
While too much can be made of such a memo, it is ironic, given that the conventional wisdom was that Rumsfeld was recalcitrant in his views on the current approach to Iraq. Not that the memo contains radical ideas.
The NYT piece is here.
One wonders if the release now is to help Rumsfeld save a little face on the way out the door.
As the piece suggests, the memo’s original goal may have been Rumsfeld trying to save his job. Too little, too late it would seem.
Sphere: Related Content
December 3rd, 2006 at 7:38 am
Rumsfeld’s Memo on Options for Iraq War
Two days before his ouster as SECDEF, Don Rumsfeld wrote a memo acknowledging that “what U.S. forces are currently doing in Iraq is not working well enough or fast enough” and offering some “Illustrative New Courses of Action” t…
December 3rd, 2006 at 11:47 am
George Will got it right when he said this morning that a memo with that many ideas really means you don’t have a clue.
December 4th, 2006 at 3:57 pm
Released? I thought it was leaked.
It appears our government officials cannot communicate with each other in a frank manner without it coming around to bite them in the rear end.
Some call it brainstorming when you think out load and even throw out wild ideas in order to stimulate the thought process. Leaks of this sort will, in the long run especially, damage policy discussions.
December 4th, 2006 at 5:15 pm
I meant “release” in the broadest of senses–yes, it was leaked.
However, it is wholly unclear who leaked it and why. There is even a plausible theory that Rumsfeld leaked it for his own PR benefit.
Leaking is such a normal part of government that I have a very hard time getting all that excited about it save in extraordinary case.