• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Analysis: Rumsfeld Exits in Wake of GOP Rout

Council on Foreign Relations

November 8, 2006
Prepared by: Michael Moran

Facing the prospect of confrontation with a Congress dominated by his Democratic rivals, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stepped down on Wednesday (NYT). President George W. Bush, announcing the move, said Iraq required “a fresh perspective” and proposed turning the Pentagon over to Robert M. Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who is president of Texas A&M University. Gates is also a member of the Baker-Hamilton Commission, which has been reviewing U.S. policy in Iraq (Weekly Standard).

Bush told reporters that those who expected a major course change in Iraq were mistaken. Yet Rumfeld’s resignation coincided with a tectonic shift of political power in Washington as Democrats took control of the House and were vying for control of the Senate following the November 7 midterm elections. Democrats described the vote as a referendum on Iraq; one senior lawmaker, Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), told NPR the Democrats plan to use their mandate to force a change in Iraq policy.

Rumsfeld’s head has been in demand since shortly after the Iraq war began to disintegrate into chaos in 2003. Democrats, citing the fact that weapons of mass destruction never materialized, were first to make the demand. As Iraq’s insurgency grew, Rumsfeld dismissed its adherents as “deadenders” (Newsweek) and his resistance to adding additional forces to the relatively small invasion force became a sticking point for those in both parties dismayed by events in Iraq. Rumsfeld himself says he twice offered to resign (CNN) in the wake of revelations in 2004 that American troops abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq.

Read the rest of this article on the cfr.org website.

Copyright 2006 by the Council on Foreign Relations. This material is republished on GlobalSecurity.org with specific permission from the cfr.org. Reprint and republication queries for this article should be directed to cfr.org.