Rumsfeld to Face Senate Panel

Senator John Warner, the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told the New York Times over the weekend that he intends to call Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to Capitol Hill to face what will undoubtedly be tough and pointed questions from the Senate panel. Warner said "The level of concern is, I think, gradually rising" among the American people, as casualties mount and progress barely seems measurable.

Joining the "stay the course is not a policy" movement, Warner said that while generally the American people and Congress remain support of efforts in Iraq, "continuing on the same course could steadily erode Congressional backing for the war," according to the Times.

Much the same sentiments came from Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking Dem in the House, who told the Times "I think the public is losing patience with the effort because they don't see it succeeding. In fact, from their perspective, they see the attacks increasing. We haven't done what we need to do for the infrastructure in Iraq. We haven't got the economy going." Hoyer supported the resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq back in 2002.

Warner also told the Times that he intends to visit Iraq in the near future, and that he plans to schedule another Armed Services Committee hearing sometime next month "on whether the Pentagon has failed to hold senior officials and military officers responsible for the prisoner abuses that took place at the Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad, and at other detention centers in Iraq, Cuba and Afghanistan."

John Warner could become one of the most important leaders of the efforts to encourage a strategy shift from the White House, away from "stay the course" to the construction of a benchmark rubric for success. His voice is certainly a welcome one. I hope that the Administration will recognize Senator Warner's seriousness and his dedication to the mission of the armed services and the success of their efforts and engage with him in a meaningful way. To attempt to sideline him as they have done with Chuck Hagel, John McCain, Joe Biden, Wes Clark and others who have tried to contribute in well-meaning ways to the debate over strategy in Iraq would be a serious mistake.