Should Rummy resign?

In the wake of the ever-widening prisoner scandal (see the heretofore secret Red Cross report here and the Washington Post story about it here), a lot of people are calling for Rummy’s head. The Economist wants him to resign — as does Megan McArdle. President Bush maintains that he’s “doing a superb job.” As Kevin Drum documents, those who supported the war are growing ever more disgruntled with the administration in general and Rumsfeld in particular. Andrew Sullivan puts it well:

The narrative of liberation was critical to the success of the mission – politically and militarily. This was never going to be easy, but it was worth trying. It was vital to reverse the Islamist narrative that pitted American values against Muslim dignity. The reason Abu Ghraib is such a catastrophe is that it has destroyed this narrative. It has turned the image of this war into the war that the America-hating left always said it was: a brutal, imperialist, racist occupation, designed to humiliate another culture. Abu Ghraib is Noam Chomsky’s narrative turned into images more stunning, more damaging, more powerful than a million polemics from Ted Rall or Susan Sontag. It is Osama’s dream propaganda coup…. The one anti-war argument that, in retrospect, I did not take seriously enough was a simple one. It was that this war was noble and defensible but that this administration was simply too incompetent and arrogant to carry it out effectively. I dismissed this as facile Bush-bashing at the time. I was wrong. I sensed the hubris of this administration after the fall of Baghdad, but I didn’t sense how they would grotesquely under-man the post-war occupation, bungle the maintenance of security, short-change an absolutely vital mission, dismiss constructive criticism, ignore even their allies (like the Brits), and fail to shift swiftly enough when events span out of control.

Actually, one could argue that the administration has in fact shifted a fair amount on how to handle postwar Iraq — it’s just that the shifts have amounted to mere tinkering given the lack of troop strength, the absence of border protection, and the abject failure of the Iraqi statebuilding project. In other words, they shifted on everything but the big things. A year ago, I wrote the following about Rumsfeld’s obsession with slimming down the military:

Rumsfeld, and the rest of the Bush administration’s foreign policy team, face a clear choice. It can outsource peacekeeping functions to the United Nations or close allies, at the cost of some constraints on foreign policy implementation. It can minimize the U.N. role and develop/train its own peacekeeping force. Or it can do neither and run into trouble down the road.

We’re down the road now. The administration never really resolved that dilemma, and I’d say we’ve hit trouble with a capital “T”. This is certainly not only Rummy’s fault — though he should have been asking tough questions on Iraq instead of letting others ask fluffy ones. The man residing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue shoulders the bulk of the responsibility. Bush’s job prospects will be decided in November, however (and since I was undecided back in January — when foreign policy was Bush’s strength — imagine my current preference ordering). In the meantime, it seems inescapable to me that Donald Rumsfeld should resign as Secretary of Defense. It’s not just Abu Ghraib — it’s the whole damn Mongolian cluster-f#*k of the postwar occupation. I’m willing to be persuaded otherwise — but the arguments better be really, really, good ones. UPDATE: Some of the commenters seem to be confusing my disdain for Rumsfeld with a desire to get out of Iraq. That’s just wrong. It’s precisely because I want the U.S. to stay in Iraq, to help build institutions that resemble a liberal polity, to demonstrate that the words “democracy” and “Arab” can be combined in the same sentence, that I want Rummy to go. ANOTHER UPDATE: This commenter prudently suggests that I can’t support Rummy’s removal without a suitable replacement. OK. My suggested replacement would be retired Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki.