There’s a petition on-line to get Rumsfeld to resign. Sign it because I think a partial victory is better than a total loss. However, I don’t think Rumsfeld should resign. He should be fired.
Joho comes to a similar conclusion.
My take has more to do with the honor of America. The President should defend it and his administration should live it. Rumsfeld was given the chance to resign and to help keep America’s honor; he chose not to. He’s said that America, the American ideal, is unimportant; raping and torturing people of color is what is important. If he resigns now, he leaves the message that he resigned for political reasons, and his failure remains. Bush has to fire him, and say that America is worth more than the individual, the very philosophy our armed forces live by. Unfortunately, Bush has recently said that the individual is worth more than the country. I don’t think we’ll be able to muster an impeachment of Bush; the Clinton impeachment was partisan, and those same players who indicated that the ideals of America mean nothing to them are now tasked with policing this administration. I think the best message would be to vote Bush out by a convincing margin and have Kerry say in his victory speech that America has spoken – Abu Ghraib was a disaster created, encouraged and perpetuated by this administration, not the American people and they have worked to correct it. Those who are responsible will be held accountable, that’s how the American democracy works.