A Great Man, a Bad Senator, and an Awful Republican

Thus ends Dean Barnett's ABC News column regarding John McCain's attack on former SecDef Don Rumsfeld at a recent campaign event. Dean thinks the attack was out-of-bounds:

John McCain is hitting the campaign trail, and he's doing so with a predictable thud.

On Monday, the ever-eager-to-settle-a-score senator appeared in South Carolina and pronounced Donald Rumsfeld one of the worst defense secretaries ever. He went on to elaborate, "We are paying a very heavy price for the mismanagement — that's the kindest word I can give you — of Donald Rumsfeld, of this war. The price is very, very heavy, and I regret it enormously."

Substantively, McCain's critique might not be entirely without merit. Still, his commentary bears the typical McCain signatures of being childishly hostile and simplistic.

In truth, Rumsfeld's management of the war in Iraq was magnificent. In three short weeks, Rumsfeld's Pentagon toppled a hostile regime that had menaced world peace for decades.

If Rumsfeld stumbled, it wasn't in managing the war but in managing the peace. After the three weeks that led to Saddam's fall, the American government collectively made several errors that have left a lasting mark on both our country and Iraq.

Barnett puts a lot of the blame for the post-war problems on the decisions made by Secretary of State Colin Powell and his State Department staff which were charged with transforming the new Iraqi state into a peaceful democracy. I'm sure there's blame enough to go around, but Dean has a point.

I believe that McCain's real beef with Rumsfeld is that he refused to go along with McCain's constant demands for more troops. McCain doesn't like to be ignored. In retrospect McCain may have been right, and if the surge works, he may be proven correct. However, if the generals on the ground were telling Rummy they didn't need more forces, I can't blame him for going with their recommendations over McCain's.

McCain's attacks on Rumsfeld at this point, long after Rummy is gone, is more of a cheap shot and an "I told you so" moment, rather than a constructive plan for Iraq. It seems a little childish, but certainly not out of character for McCain.