Via different strings I learned of Fareed Zakaria's advice to Donald Rumsfeld to fire Lt. General William Boykin.

I beg to differ. Mr. Zakaria's common sense argument notwithstanding, the firing of the Lt. General would send the wrong message to the country and the rest of the world. By wrong I mean incorrect. Boykin said nothing that Bush wouldn't have said himself if he weren't constrained by the pesky First Amendment. Besides, Bush's first comments after 9/11 did promise a "crusade" against our enemies and his Administration's original name for the retributive war on Afghanistan was "Operation Infinite Justice."

If Rumsfeld were to fire or demote Boykin then this Administration would lose the credibility that it has so painstakingly built by shutting out Colin Powell's contrarian State Department.

What? Sarcastic? Moi?

--aslam

1:48:47 PM