Hours after the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, journalists and military experts discussed his career and the future of the Iraq War in the Jack Morton Auditorium Wednesday.
The event had been planned for several weeks, but the resignation announcement shifted the focus of the discussion to the future of the U.S. involvement in Iraq. School of Media and Public Affairs professor Frank Sesno screened his CNN documentary about Rumsfeld’s career, which aired last month on the network.
About 80 students and professors attended the screening of “Rumsfeld: Man of War” and afterwards posed questions to the panelists, which included former U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste and New York Times White House correspondent David Sanger.
President George W. Bush announced Rumsfeld’s resignation Wednesday and nominated former CIA Director Robert Gates as his successor. The announcement came just one day after the Republican Party lost a majority in both houses of Congress.
Sesno, who interviewed Rumsfeld extensively in August for the CNN documentary, moderated the event and said he was surprised by the resignation.
“He said he had served at the pleasure of the president and made it clear that he wouldn’t be intimidated out of the job,” said Sesno, referring to numerous demands for Rumsfeld’s resignation by his critics. “Obviously when something like this happens it has been in the works for a while.”
Members of the panel debated on how the change in leadership may affect the fate of the war.
“We need a compelling strategy now to take us forward and win (the Iraq war),” said Batiste, who commanded the First Infantry from 2003 to 2004 in Iraq and has been a critic of Rumsfeld. “The executive branch has run amuck and set us up for failure in the future.”
Batiste said military forces in Iraq are under-funded and under-equipped and new leadership is necessary.
“What we need now is a kind of leadership, commitment and sacrifice that we haven’t seen in this country since World War II,” Batiste said.
Panelists discussed how the leadership shift in Congress may have affected Bush’s decision.
“Certainly today’s actions have suggested that reality has settled in,” said David Sanger, the White House correspondent for the New York Times. “By bringing in Bob Gates, they at least have a Secretary of Defense that’s not invested in the old strategy.”
Sanger said Bush’s chosen successor to the position will bring in a fresh look.
“Gates is certainly somebody whose views do not seem to line up perfectly with this administration,” Sanger added.
Sesno’s film highlighted Rumsfeld’s aggressive personality and faults in the planning of the Iraq War. One of the panelists’ major points was that the U.S. had no strategy after the moment that Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, was taken out of power.
The documentary, a special of “CNN Presents,” debuted Sept. 30 and took six months to complete. It also re-aired in early October.
“The most controversial, outspoken, polarizing, fascinating person in Washington is Rumsfeld. At a time of war, a divisive war, it seemed like a good time to take a look at him,” Sesno said in September.
Sesno offered his thoughts on how Rumsfeld will remember the war and his tenure as Defense Secretary since 2001.
Sesno said: “I don’t think there will be any apologies.”
