Salazar demands Rumsfeld be fired

Defense secretary's salvo at war critics angers Democrats

Jean Torkelson, Rocky Mountain News

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Sen. Ken Salazar joined other angry Democrats on Wednesday in demanding that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld be fired for saying Iraq war critics suffer from "moral confusion."

"It is a grave insult to suggest that Americans who question Secretary Rumsfeld's mismanagement of the conflict in Iraq are somehow not fully committed to standing up to terrorism," the Colorado senator wrote in a letter to President Bush.

In a speech Tuesday to the American Legion, the defense secretary said the world faced "a new type of fascism" and compared current war critics to Americans who slowed down the country's response to Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany.

He also said administration critics suffered from "moral confusion."

"The secretary of defense has once again missed the point that the nation stands united in the fight against terrorism," Salazar wrote.

Salazar was joined by a half-dozen other Democrats, including Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who said Rumsfeld's remarks were "vilification," and New York's Charles Schumer, who called Rumsfeld's comments a "strawman" when the real issue is a possible civil war in Iraq.

Salazar called Rumsfeld's initial estimate that the Iraqi war would cost under $50 billion "a gargantuan error" when, according to Salazar, it's risen to $300 billion and continues to climb after more than three years of fighting.

"Rumsfeld should admit his huge mistakes," Salazar wrote, telling Bush that the job requires a statesman "who can gain the confidence of the American people."

Colorado's senior senator, Republican Wayne Allard, defended Rumsfeld. He praised the defense secretary's attempts to reform the military and said that has caused friction.

"He's done a great job," Allard said during a budget committee hearing in Aurora Wednesday afternoon.

"I don't think they ought to be calling for his resignation," Allard said.