Mark Dayton: “I join today with many of my colleagues in expressing ``no confidence'' in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and…”

“I join today with many of my colleagues in expressing ``no confidence'' in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and urging President Bush to replace him. I truly respect the Secretary's commitment to public service, and I recognize that he has one of the most difficult jobs here or anywhere in the world. He is a stand-up, tell-it-as-he-sees-it man, the kind we need more of in Washington. Unfortunately, the way he sees it has too often been wrong. His disastrous failures in prosecuting the war in Iraq have left our courageous American troops mired in a quagmire there with no end in sight. And his shameful rhetoric last week comparing critics of his failed policies to the appeasers of Hitler was clearly a desperate attempt to divert attention away from his own failures. Recent polls show the number of Americans who support the Administration's policies in Iraq is down to 39 percent compared to a high of 76 percent in April 2003. That loss of public confidence has occurred not because Americans are appeasers--they most certainly are not--and not because Americans don't support our troops because they most certainly do support them and admire their incredible courage and patriotism as they persevere in the awful, deteriorating conditions there. That loss of the public confidence in the Bush administration's war has occurred because Americans can tell the difference between success and failure. They can see that the President's policies are not succeeding in Iraq.…”