Policy Is More Important Than Personnel
by Rep. Ron Paul
President Bush has been under pressure to fire Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whom many view as the architect of a failed approach in Iraq. Even many ardent war hawks are unhappy with the secretary for not having more troops on the ground in Iraq, and for conducting the war less aggressively than they would like.
But the issue is not who serves as secretary of defense, the issue is how, when, and why the United States uses military force. It makes no sense simply to replace Mr. Rumsfeld with someone else who holds the same view, namely that it’s the job of American soldiers and U.S. taxpayers to police the world. We should be debating the proper foreign policy for our country – utopian nation-building vs. the noninterventionism counseled by our Founding Fathers – rather than which individual is best suited to carry it out. (more…)