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PHOENIX - U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has “no confidence” in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld’s handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.
McCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld’s resignation, explaining that President Bush “can have the team that he wants around him.”
“I have strenuously argued for larger troop numbers in Iraq, including the right kind of troops — linguists, special forces, civil affairs, etc.,” said McCain, R-Ariz. “There are very strong differences of opinion between myself and Secretary Rumsfeld on that issue.”
When asked if Rumsfeld was a liability to the Bush administration, McCain responded: “The president can decide that, not me.”
McCain, a decorated Navy veteran and former Vietnam prisoner of war, is a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, which has oversight of military operations and considerable influence over the Pentagon budget.
Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita said McCain “has frequently expressed his views regarding troop levels in Iraq, and he is an important member” of the committee.
… WASHINGTON (CNN) – President Bush on Tuesday emphasized once again his support for his defense secretary, saying Donald Rumsfeld “is doing a fine job.”
At a Rose Garden ceremony announcing his nominees for budget director and trade representative, Bush referred to the controversy in which six retired generals recently have called for Rumsfeld’s resignation.
“I hear the voices, and I read the front page and I know the speculation,” the president said. “But I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.”
Also Tuesday, Rumsfeld planned to meet with a group of retired generals who regularly appear as analysts on television and in newspapers.
Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Donald Shepperd, a CNN military analyst who will attend the session, said more than a dozen similar meetings have been held in the past. But he said that Tuesday’s meeting was called late last week, apparently in response to recent events.
Shepperd said such meetings give the generals an opportunity to ask tough questions and that they are not limited to those who agree with the Pentagon on every issue.
Recently, six retired generals – including former commanders of two Army divisions that saw combat in Iraq – have called for Rumsfeld to resign.
They accuse him of ignoring advice from senior officers about how to prosecute the war and sending too few troops into Iraq to manage the occupation after the March 2003 invasion