Rumsfeld: I'll fire anyone who says we need to plan for after the war

By Lee Russ

Saturday, September 09, 2006 at 06:04 PM

If this turns out to be true, or even credible, there is no justification in the known universe for Rumsfeld's continued role as Secretary of Defense or even toilet bowl licker.

Long before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld forbade military strategists to develop plans for securing a postwar Iraq, the retiring commander of the Army Transportation Corps said Thursday.

In fact, said Brig. Gen. Mark Scheid, Rumsfeld said "he would fire the next person" who talked about the need for a postwar plan.
...Scheid, who is also the commander of Fort Eustis in Newport News, made his comments in an interview with The Daily Press. He retires in about three weeks.

Scheid's comments are further confirmation of the version of events reported in "Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq," the book by New York Times reporter Michael R. Gordon and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Bernard E. Trainor.

The General was made the chief of logistics war plans the day before the hijacked planes hit the WTC and Pentagon, so he was seriously involved in the war planning.  He says that his unit tried to make plans for "Phase IV" (post-war), even though he and most others really thought the war would be short, successful, and not require long term U.S. commitment.

Yes, the General actually took the drastic step of planning for a contingency even though the prevailing view was that the contingency would not occur.  Probably because if the contingency did occur, failure to plan would be a disaster.

I can't wait to see what the Bush mud machine throws at this General, and how long it takes them to get a bucket of the mud ready for throwing.