Rumsfeld must go

Why Donald Rumsfeld still has his job is beyond me.

The Secretary of Defense wasn't alert to the threat posed by Al Qaeda in the summer of 2001.

Then, like the man who loses his keys in a dark alley but looks for them under the lamppost because there's more light there, Rumsfeld immediately wanted to bomb Iraq because he said there weren't enough targets in Afghanistan.

He repeatedly undercut the diplomacy of Colin Powell.

He grossly underestimated the number of troops needed for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

And he shares responsibility for the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, according to the new Schlesinger report.

"The abuses were not just the failure of some individuals to follow known standards, and they are more than the failure of a few leaders to enforce proper discipline," the report notes. "There is both institutional and personal responsibility at higher levels"--including Rumsfeld's level.

One member of the commission, Tillie Fowler, said, "We found a string of failures that go well beyond an isolated cellblock in Iraq. We found fundamental failures throughout all levels of command. . . . These failures of leadership helped set the conditions which allowed for the abusive practice to take place."

One of those failures, according to the report, was Rumsfeld's "decisions beginning on December 2, 2002, to authorize for use at Guantánamo16 additional interrogation procedures more aggressive" than the standard military methods. These procedures included the use of dogs, the stripping of detainees, and making detainees sit or stand in painful positions for long periods of time. "The augmented techniques for Guantánamo migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq, where they were neither limited nor safeguarded."

The verb "migrated" is unfortunate. It implies something natural or instinctive that birds do. But some human beings made the decisions to engage in these abusive practices, and higher ups let such practices go on.

Another unfortunate word choice in the report was the "purposeless sadism" at Abu Ghraib.

What, pray tell, would "purposeful sadism" be?

The torture scandal goes beyond Rumsfeld and the Pentagon.

It reaches into the CIA, whose officers were allegedly involved in the torture. The commission did not receive "full access to information involving the role of the Central Intelligence Agency," the report notes.

The torture scandal reaches into the Justice Department, where the Attorney General and his deputies justified the use of torture by splitting hairs about what the actual definition of torture is, and by stating that torture is OK, anyway, if it is "pursuant" to the President's authority as commander in chief.

And the scandal reaches into the White House. Bush's legal counsel, Alberto Gonzales, referred to the Geneva Conventions as "quaint" and "antiquated."

So, yes, Rumsfeld has got to go.

But other high officials need to be held accountable, too.

-- Matthew Rothschild