I, too, cringed when I heard Donald Rumsfeld's remarks last week in Kuwait when he said to the troops "As you know, you go to war with the Army you have. They're not the Army you might want or wish to have at a later time." I'm still not too sure whether he was referring to the Army as people or as an organization comprised of materiel, but it was still an incredibly unfortunate remark, especially coming from a man who could moonlight as a grammarian.
Anyway, the crowd calling for his removal is growing, most notably among Republicans. Bill Kristol at The Weekly Standard has joined the fray, dismissing Rumsfeld as a glib and arrogant buck-passer. I understand that view as a personal perception, but I still have a fondness and a respect for Rumsfeld. Maybe it's because I am too ignorant of the extent of his influence or of just how much he can do with such an enormous institution as the Department of Defense, but surely he has been the most consequential SECDEF since Robert McNamara ---and greatly burdened with putting together a machine to wage such a widescale war against a new kind of global enemy.
I don't suppose Rumsfeld will last too much longer in his current role, but I, for one, think he has been an asset to our country.