New man at the Pentagon puts his hand on Baghdad exit door

[spindrifter]

The Sunday Times November 12, 2006

Sarah Baxter in Washington

<snip>

Inside the Pentagon, some old hands are wondering whether the coolly analytical Gates, a former head of the CIA and friend of the first President George Bush, is enough of a risk-taker to turn the situation around.

“He tacks right to the middle,” said a defence source. “He’s the guy who can hold the reins, get confirmed and get through the next two years without the Democrats cutting off the money.” But can he produce an effective plan for victory? The Democrats are already laying plans for a withdrawal timetable now that they control Congress. Senator Carl Levin, prospective chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said the Iraqis needed to know there was “no open-ended commitment”.

<snip>

The prospect of a Democrat victory in the mid-term elections had been bothering Rumsfeld for weeks. He had first offered his resignation over the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib but the president had brushed it off. About a fortnight ago, he told Bush he was prepared to quit in the event of a Republican defeat.

“If the Democrats had only won the House of Representatives, it is possible he might have stayed on,” said a senior defence source. “But if they also won the Senate, he was determined to go. He thought that if the Democrats ran the Senate armed forces committee as well as the House, he would never get any business done.”

<more>

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2449835,00.html

[Xipe Totec]

1. Which Door?

[AnneD]

2. Hah hah hah

You're too quick for me... :imnotworthy: