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Many Americans Question Future of Rumsfeld

There is much speculation these days in the United States on the conduct of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and the publication of a new book by political insider Bob Woodward ? who helped crack the Watergate scandal of the late U.S. president Richard Nixon ? paints if not a scathing portrait, then at least a less than rosy picture of the work which has been done by Rumseld related to the Iraq theater of the War on Terror, Rumsfeldf has long a figure of Republican administrations since the days of Gerald Ford.

President George W. Bush insists that Secretary Rumsfeld has his confidence, but there doesn?t seem to be much actual reason for this confidence to still be held. The situation in Iraq has not calmed down as the Secretary predicted many times over the past few years, if anything, the situation has gotten worse. The Army Chief of Staff recently ?rebelled? against Rumsfeld, refusing to submit a budget on time in protest of the Army not getting the funding it needs to conduct the war to the best of its ability.

Bush has a little over two years left before the end of his term, but the mid-term elections this November loom and what with public and private opposition to his defense policies rising, and a recent scandal of sexual proportions involving a Republican member of Congress, Americans and the world might see the Democrats take control of the Legislative Branch for the first time since the hotly contested election of 2000.