Long Knives

When Senator McCain blasted our Secretary of Defense, I didn't pay much attention. Now that his friend Bill Kristol has chimed in, I am trying to be open minded.

In a WaPo column, Kristol demolishes Rumsfeld:

Actually, we have a pretty terrific Army. It's performed a lot better in this war than the secretary of defense has. President Bush has nonetheless decided to stick for now with the defense secretary we have, perhaps because he doesn't want to make a change until after the Jan. 30 Iraqi elections. But surely Don Rumsfeld is not the defense secretary Bush should want to have for the remainder of his second term.

The internecine strife has kicked up some dust around the Conservosphere. The NR people seem to be holding with the SecDef, Jonathan Last perhaps represents the bulk of the rest of the Weekly Standard crew behind their fearless leader. And Andrew Sullivan is dancing in the street with excitement.

No, Jonathan, I don't want to blindly support Sec Rumsfeld because is an administration player. But I'm not going over to MoDo's side either.

Mistakes were made in Iraq, but I'm not ready to blame Rumsfeld, Bremer, Bush, or Schrödinger’s cat. Rumsfeld's call for a lighter-faster-smarter military seems perfect for the times. His forthrightness with the Press was excellent. And, ummm, we did win, guys. You'd never sense that from the dispersion of blame.

I am going to break with Kristol here and support Secretary Rumsfeld.

Posted by jk at December 15, 2004 10:30 AM