Fromwww. kentimmerman.com
Fromwww. kentimmerman.com
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
RumsfeldMove Signals 'End of Bush Era'
Tuesday, Nov. 14,2006
WASHINGTON -- Prominent conservatives are unhappy withPresident Bush's decision to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeldjust one day after the mid-term elections, and are wary of his choiceof former CIA director Robert Gates to succeed Rumsfeld at thePentagon.
"This is the end of the Bush era," warned Frank Gaffney,president of the Center for Security Policy, a prominent conservativethink tank that just awarded its prestigious annual "Keeper of theFlame" tribute to Donald Rumsfeld.
Gaffney told NewsMax he would be "actively opposing" the Gatesnomination because the former CIA director has publicly endorsed acall to negotiate with Iran as a way of diminishing Iran's supportfor Shia militias in Iraq and of mitigating the threat from Iran'snuclear weapons program.
"I think this is the beginning of the Jim Baker regency, withthe Bush administration ceding to Bush 41 everything this presidenthas believed in and worked to accomplish," Gaffney said.
Former Secretary of State James Baker, who heads the Iraq StudyGroup, is briefing President Bush on the group's recommendations onMonday. One of those recommendations is widely believed to be directnegotiations with Tehran.
Baker met recently with Iran's ambassador to the United Nations,Javad Zarif, to explore Iran's willingness to hold direct talks withthe Bush administration, Iranian sources told NewsMax.
"If they [the United States] really want to hold talkswith Iran, they should officially propose it and then Iran willreview it," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said inTehran on Monday.
Iranian officials have gloated at theRepublican defeat in the Nov. 7 elections. Iranian governmentspokesman Gholamhossein Elham said on Monday that a change in U.S.policies would be "a blessed event."
"We hope that America reconsiders its policies, leaves the regionalone . . . abandons war-mongering and supporting terrorist groups inthis region," Elham said.
Gates, who traveled to Iraq several times with Baker, announcedon Monday that he was resigning as a member of the Iraq Study Groupbecause of his nomination for the top Pentagon job.
In 2004, Gates took part in a Council on Foreign Relations study,co-authored by Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft, thatadvocated direct U.S. negotiations with Iran to reach a "globalsettlement" that would include U.S. security guarantees to the Tehranregime and a U.S. pledge not to support pro-democracy groups.
Joining Gaffney in opposing the Gates nomination was retiredMaj. Gen. Paul Vallely, now a military commentator on Fox News."Gates is a part of the Bush one appeasers that do not understand andaccept the importance of victory over the Islamic radicals to includethe nation states supporting radical Islam," he said.
Vallely believes the United Statesshould "take the gloves off" in Iraq by more actively going afterinsurgents through covert operations and special operations forces,while leaving urban warfare and overall security to Iraqi forces.
Gates has received high marks from former colleagues at theCentral Intelligence Agency and from former Rumsfeld aid Rich Haver,now vice president for Intelligence Programs at Northrop Grumman.
"Bob Gates is a realist, a pragmatist, and has a skeptical turnof mind," former deputy CIA director John McLaughlin told NewsMax."He's a good listener, who is very skilled at working with bigbureaucracies."
Unlike Rumsfeld "who came in with certain things in mind hewanted to do at the Pentagon, I don't think Gates bringspreconceptions about how the Pentagon operates or is organized,"McLaughlin said.
Haver, who helped Rumsfeld reorganize the Pentagon'sintelligence shop, said Gates set off "waves of change" when he tookover as CIA director in 1991, and worked closely with then Secretaryof Defense Dick Cheney.
"Gates and Cheney agreed that with the end of the Cold War, the1990s were the time to change the intelligence apparatus and rebuildthe CIA's human intelligence gathering capabilities," Haver said.
"But the reinvestment in intelligence that Gates and Cheney hadforeseen never took place under Clinton. And that's why we had 9/11,"Haver added.
Also supporting Gates is retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney,also a Fox News military analyst, who called Gates "tough as nails"and predicted he would pursue Rumsfeld's efforts to transform themilitary.
"I think that the 'freedom' agendawill give way to a 'stability' agenda as we did in South Korea afterKorean War," McInerney added. "Gates may try to work with Iran but heis no fool and will be a tough taskmaster. He is not BrentScrowcroft."
On Monday, Gates picked up support from Sen. John Cornyn, a keyRepublican member of the Senate Armed Services committee that willhold confirmation hearings on the Gates nomination next month.
"While he will be missed at Texas A&M, I am hard pressed tothink of a better qualified and more experienced individual to leadthe Defense Department at such a critical time," Sen. Coryn said. "AsI told him by phone earlier this afternoon, he has my full supportand I will work to ensure his confirmation in the Senate."
Armed Services committee member Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.,called Gates "a good choice," and said that "a new face and freshapproach will help us in our efforts to move forward toward victory"in Iraq.
Kudos to Rumsfeld
Chambliss also tipped his hat toRumsfeld, as "one of the reasons we have not suffered another attackon U.S. domestic soil since Sept. 11, 2001."
Incoming Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has agreedto hold confirmation hearings for Gates during the lame duck sessionwith the outgoing Republican majority.
So far, no Democrats have said they will oppose the Gatesnomination.
While Gaffney realizes he is likely to lose his battle againstBob Gates, he said the confirmation hearings were an opportunity to"have a debate where Gates and Jim Baker want to take this country.We didn't have that debate during the election."