【軍関係のメディアがラムズフェルドの辞任を要求】

4つのアメリカ軍関係のメディアが中間選挙直前になって、一斉にラムズフェルド国防大臣の辞任を求めるコラムを掲載したことが大きな話題に成っている。

ラムズフェルドに対する辞任要求自体はもうずいぶん前から、民主党だけでなく、与党共和党の中からも上がっていたから別に珍しくは無い。しかし、これは正にラムズフェルドのお膝元である軍から、ラムズフェルドが主導し実施した軍の近代化と、一連のテロとの戦争の結果に対する責任を追及する声が上がったわけで、ラムズフェルドをずっと擁護してきたブッシュ大統領にとっては大ショックだろう。

上官の命令は絶対的なものである軍の内部から、一斉に高まったブーイング。こんなことはアメリカの歴史上始まって以来の事だというから、軍関係者のラムズフェルドに対する怒りは相当なものなんだろう。

軍の指導部からも見放され、ましては現場で戦っている兵士達からもレスペクトされないリーダーが、果たして今後まともな指揮が出来るのだろうか？

今夜の中間選挙の結果次第では、辞任も免れないのではないかという気がする。

■Editorial opens fire on Rumsfeld (BBC NEWS)

Four US military journals have called for Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to quit, accusing him of losing control of the situation in Iraq.

An editorial published on Monday said Mr Rumsfeld has lost the respect of senior officers and ordinary troops.

The editorial said that the call for Mr Rumsfeld to quit was not timed to coincide with US mid-term elections.

ちなみに最初に口火を切ったのは下記の「ARMY TIMES」だった。

■Time for Rumsfeld to go (ARMY TIMES)

One rosy reassurance after another has been handed down by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: “mission accomplished,” the insurgency is “in its last throes,” and “back off,” we know what we’re doing, are a few choice examples.

Military leaders generally toed the line, although a few retired generals eventually spoke out from the safety of the sidelines, inciting criticism equally from anti-war types, who thought they should have spoken out while still in uniform, and pro-war foes, who thought the generals should have kept their critiques behind closed doors.

Now, however, a new chorus of criticism is beginning to resonate. Active-duty military leaders are starting to voice misgivings about the war’s planning, execution and dimming prospects for success.

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. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.

しかもブッシュ政権に対するブーイングは軍関係だけではなく、なんと“テロとの戦争＝中東の民主化”の仕掛け人でもあるはずのネオコン内部からも上がっている。最も声高にブッシュを批判しているのは、2004年まで国防総省で戦略の策定を担当し、“暗黒のプリンス”のあだ名で知られる、あのリチャード・パールだ。

■Neo-Cons Fire Away at Bush Policies on Iraq (NPR)

■Neo Culpa (VANITYFAIR)

As Iraq slips further into chaos, the war's neoconservative boosters have turned sharply on the Bush administration, charging that their grand designs have been undermined by White House incompetence. In a series of exclusive interviews, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum, and others play the blame game with shocking frankness. Target No. 1: the president himself.

According to Perle, who left the Defense Policy Board in 2004, this unfolding catastrophe has a central cause: devastating dysfunction within the administration of President George W. Bush. Perle says, "The decisions did not get made that should have been. They didn't get made in a timely fashion, and the differences were argued out endlessly.… At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible.… I don't think he realized the extent of the opposition within his own administration, and the disloyalty."

To David Frum, the former White House speechwriter who co-wrote Bush's 2002 State of the Union address that accused Iraq of being part of an "axis of evil," it now looks as if defeat may be inescapable, because "the insurgency has proven it can kill anyone who cooperates, and the United States and its friends have failed to prove that it can protect them." This situation, he says, must ultimately be blamed on "failure at the center"—starting with President Bush.

どうやらブッシュ政権は既にかなり前からある種の内部崩壊状態にあるようだ。

2度の大統領選挙における強固な支持基盤であったキリスト教福音派からも、政策を支えていたネオコンの中心メンバーからも「無能の人」と見切られてしまったブッシュ大統領。中間選挙の結果を見るまでもなく、彼の時代は着実に過去のものに成りつつある。

だから「そもそも彼を再選させたのが悪いんだって！」、ほんと今更ながら思うけれど、時既に遅し。願わくば、今日の中間選挙でアメリカ人の良識（＝正気）が示されることを心から祈る。