Date Posted: Sunday, December 19, 2004

Despite support from the White House, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is under fire from both Republicans and Democrats for his handling of the war in Iraq.

WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (MASNET & News Agencies) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is the target of increasing criticism from both his own Republican camp and Democrats, as the White House voiced its continued support for the Pentagon chief.

Several top Republicans have recently expressed discontent with Rumsfeld, who survived President George W. Bush's post-November election cabinet shake-up, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The defense chief has come under fire more than a week ago over his answer to a Tennessee National Guard member in Kuwait who asked about the lack of armor for U.S. military vehicles in Iraq.

In widely broadcast and published remarks, Rumsfeld responded: "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

Republican Senator Trent Lott, the Senate's former majority leader, said he hoped Rumsfeld would step down sometime next year, but fell short of calling for his immediate resignation, saying Rumsfeld does not listen enough to his officers.

"I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," said Lott, speaking to the Chamber of Commerce in Biloxi, MS, on Wednesday. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers."

Lott said the United States needs more troops to help with the war and a plan to leave Iraq once elections take place in late January. The Mississippi Republican does not think Rumsfeld is the person to carry out that plan, reports the Associated Press (AP).

"I would like to see a change in that slot in the next year or so," Lott said. "I'm not calling for his resignation, but I think we do need a change at some point."

On Tuesday, Senator John McCain said he had "no confidence" in Rumsfeld, and expressed disappointment that the Pentagon had not sent a greater number of U.S. troops to help stabilize Iraq.

The remarks reprised a recent television interview in which the Arizona senator said that while he could not give Rumsfeld a vote of confidence, he would do his best to set his reservations aside.

"I want to work with Secretary Rumsfeld because he will be the secretary of defense for an undetermined length of time," McCain told Fox News recently.

"The president of the United States was re-elected by a majority of the American people, and I respect his right. I will work with the president, obviously, and with the secretary of defense," said McCain, a Vietnam War hero and one of the most respected members of the U.S. Congress on defense matters.

But the White House defended the 72-year-old veteran official concerning the Pentagon's handling of the continuing insurgency and mounting U.S. casualties.

"The president believes Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job, and that's why he asked him to continue serving during this time of war," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

President Bush "believes that Secretary Rumsfeld is the right person for the challenges that we face going forward in the war on terrorism," he told reporters.

"And he remains firmly supportive of the actions that he has taken to win the war on terrorism and to defeat those who seek to do harm to America."

Asked whether Bush was aware that prominent Republicans were increasingly questioning Rumsfeld's fitness for office, McClellan replied: "We look at the news just like you do."

At a White House press conference Tuesday following McCain’s remarks, McClellan said the criticism has not eroded Bush's confidence in his defense secretary.

"Secretary Rumsfeld has been doing a tremendous job during some very challenging times. During a time when we are in the middle of the war on terrorism, he has helped us make great progress to dismantle and disrupt the terrorist networks across the world," said McClellan.

"We appreciate his leadership at the Department of Defense. And that's why the president asked him to continue his service," he said.

Republican Senator Susan Collins, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, wrote to Rumsfeld that his answer to troops in Kuwait was "troubling."

Collins noted that she brought up her concerns about the shortage of body armor and fortified Humvees for troops in Iraq during a committee hearing in March with a top Pentagon official.

"I remain concerned that, more than eight months later, the Department of Defense still has been unable to ensure that our troops have the equipment they need to perform their mission as safely as possible," she wrote in a letter dated December 15.

Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a longtime Rumsfeld critic, referring to the Tennessee National Guard member’s question concerning the lack of proper armor, said "That soldier and those men and women there deserved a far better answer from their secretary of defense than a flippant comment ... not when you're putting these men and women in harm's way."

Hagel, a decorated war veteran, offered litany of complaints about Rumsfeld's "irresponsible" handling of the Iraq war.

"I don't like the way he has done some things. I think they have been irresponsible. I don't like the way we went into Iraq," he said in a television interview with CNN this week.

"We didn't go into Iraq with enough troops. He's dismissed his general officers. He's dismissed all outside influence. He's dismissed outside counsel and advice, and he's dismissed a lot of inside counsel and advice from men and women who have been in military uniforms for 25 and 30 years," he said.

The Nebraska senator pointedly refused to endorse Bush's decision to ask Rumsfeld to stay on.

"The president's decision is his decision. He will live with that decision. He'll have to defend that decision," Hagel said.

And William Kristol, the editor of the conservative Weekly Standard, called for Rumsfeld's resignation in a Washington Post opinion piece titled "The Defense Secretary We Have."

"Surely Don Rumsfeld is not the defense secretary Bush should want to have for the remainder of his second term," wrote Kristol, a member of the neo-conservative movement that supported the Iraq war.

"Contrast the magnificent performance of our soldiers with the arrogant buck-passing of Rumsfeld," he wrote.

"All defense secretaries in wartime have, needless to say, made misjudgments. Some have stubbornly persisted in their misjudgments," Kristol wrote. "But have any so breezily dodged responsibility and so glibly passed the buck?"

On Saturday, Democrats joined in saying U.S. soldiers in Iraq lacked adequate body armor and plated vehicles because of Rumsfeld's flawed leadership, reports Reuters.

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois, in the Democrats' weekly radio address, blasted the Pentagon under Rumsfeld for "a litany of serious miscalculations" including underestimating the Iraqi resistance and failing to give troops enough protective equipment even though Congress gave it all the money it requested, the news agency reported.

"The Pentagon says the lack of protective equipment is a matter of 'logistics.' No it's not. It's a matter of leadership," said Durbin, who will become the Senate's minority whip in the new Congress next month.

Durbin said Rumsfeld ignored warnings from top military experts that success in Iraq would require far more troops and that they were likely to meet strong resistance, reports the AP.

"Those responsible for planning this war were not prepared for the reality on the ground, and many of our soldiers have paid the price," he said, citing nearly 1,300 U.S. service members who have died in Iraq and more than 10,000 injured, reports Reuters.

"Now Congress has given the administration every penny it has requested for Iraq and Afghanistan," Durbin said. But he said 21 months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, 3,500 Humvees there still lacked protective armor, and about 80 percent of other vehicles troops are using in Iraq also were unarmored, the news agency reports.

"How in the world can the Pentagon have billions of dollars for no-bid contracts for companies like Halliburton - but not enough money to provide basic protective equipment for our troops?" Durbin said.

Durbin said Rumsfeld owed the soldier who posed the question on armor to him earlier this month and all Americans "some straight answers."

"We can and we should armor every Humvee and every truck our troops use in Iraq and Afghanistan. No more excuses, no more delays," Durbin said.

"Secretary Rumsfeld, we have the Army we want. Now let's give them the equipment they need," he said.