Stay the Course, Rumsfeld and Cheney Jobs Safe

VP Dick Cheney and Defense Sec'y Donald Rumsfeld can each breathe a small sigh of relief. Their jobs are safe for now. President Bush has given Rumsfeld the "thumbs-up" sign despite calls for his resignation from both Republicans and Democrats. And Cheney gets a big vote of confidence too in spite of the Iraq quagmire he helped create.

It seems that the new Bush Administration strategy of renaming the "stay the course" policy into "modify to win" doesn't apply to Rumsfeld or Cheney. The sobering casualty list for October reports 105 US military personnel dead and 700+ wounded. In one long, sad month families and friends in cities large and small have said farewell to flag-draped coffins. They have rushed to the bedsides of their injured, and prepared for the weeks and months and years of rehabilitation.

Not Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld have offered anything other than lip service to changing Iraq policy. And while firing Rumsfeld or removing Cheney would not directly prevent another war death, it would be something more tangible than the doublespeak we're being served.

President Bush has always planned for this debacle to be inherited by the next president. So in his mind there is no need to remove the incompetent architects of this mess. They can all stay the course until January of 2009, and then ride into the sunset, convinced that they brought stability to the Middle East, routed the terrorists, and made the world a safer place.

They didn't.