Rumsfeld to resign

After widespread condemnation and demands for his resignation, Defense Secrtary Ronald Rumsfeld gave notice on Nov. 8 that he would be leaving his post. President Bush, reaching into his father's administration, said that former CIA Director Robert Gates is to replace Rumsfeld. Gates led the CIA, under then-President George H.W. Bush, from November 1991 to January 1993. Rumsfeld's resignation announcement came on the heels of just the latest in high level demands from the military for his removal. The influential United States army newspaper group Military Times, which include the widely read Army Times, had just called for Rumsfeld's resignation for the "failure" of his military strategy. The army news group had accused Rumsfeld of losing touch with military leadership and the US public. In an editorial entitled "Time for Rumsfeld to Go," the newspaper said: "Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised." It concluded: "The time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth; Donald Rumsfeld must go." Bush sacrificed his right-hand man in the war in Iraq as his administration scrambled on Nov. 8 to find its footing after a bruising defeat in an election which Democrats claimed amounted to a referendum on the US role in the Iraq War. In his first appearance since the Democrats won the House of Representatives with a projected gain of nearly 30 seats, the president admitted that his party had been given "a thumping" in the elections, and acknowledged that Iraq was at least part of the cause. Bush told a White House press conference: "I recognize that many Americans voted last night to register their displeasure with the lack of progress being made there." Rumsfeld's resignation precedes the release of recommendations from the Iraq Study Group led by James Baker, Bush's father's secretary of state, on how Washington can extricate itself from the mayhem it has unleashed. That report is expected by year's end. Bush said he was talking to the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel of which Gates is a member. However, Bush made it clear that he would not consider rapid withdrawal from Iraq as an option. He said that he had chosen Gates after finding him to be "of like mind.... He understands that defeat is not an option in Iraq."