US Mid-term elections

[JRG]

As i write the senate results are not yet in as Montana and Virginia are still being counted.

Do people think that a democrat House of representatives will effect any change in US foreign policy, or is the only realistic output more of the same?

Does real change require the Democrats to gain a majority in the Senate?

[Hollowman]

It can only influence foreign policy in that the House controls the purse strings.

[animal magic]

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is standing down, President George W Bush has announced after bruising losses for Republicans in mid-term elections.
Mr Bush said that both he and Mr Rumsfeld had agreed the time was right for new leadership at the Pentagon.

Former CIA Director Robert Gates has been nominated to replace Mr Rumsfeld.

The Democrats won control of the House of Representatives in the polls, and the Senate balance of power hangs on a tight race in just one state, Virginia.

Mr Bush said that his administration's Iraq policy was "not working well enough, fast enough", and that Mr Rumsfeld agreed that a "fresh perspective" was needed on the issue.

The US president described as "thumping" the Republicans' set-back in the elections, in which the Democrats gained control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years

But he said that with victory, there had to be responsibility, and that was why he would be working with his Democratic opponents to get legislation passed.

Mr Bush described Mr Rumsfeld as a "patriot who served this country with honour and distinction", as well as "a trusted adviser and a friend".

With popular anger over the war in Iraq a major factor during the election campaign, there had been growing calls for Mr Rumsfeld, the longest serving defence secretary in American history, to quit.

Correspondents say he was a key architect of the war in Iraq and had been looking increasingly beleaguered because of its apparent failures.

Neither Mr Rumsfeld or Vice-President Dick Cheney were present at the news conference where Mr Bush spoke, which correspondents said was unusual at such events.

Asked if Mr Cheney would be with him for the rest of his term, Mr Bush said "yes he will".

Mr Bush spoke minutes after the news came that the Democrats had won the Senate race in Montana, one of the two seats needed to wrest control of the upper chamber of Congress from the Republicans.

Mr Bush said he was appointing Robert Gates, 63, to take over as defence secretary.

Mr Gates served as CIA director for just over a year in the early 1990s, during the presidency of Mr Bush's father, former President George Bush.

He is a member of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which is tasked with recommending ways of tackling the problems the US faces in Iraq.

Correspondents say Mr Gates is widely respected by both Democrats and Republicans, which will help gain Senate confirmation even if the Republicans lose their majority.

'Common ground'

The BBC's John Simpson in Baghdad says the news of Mr Rumsfeld's resignation will be met with delight on the streets of the Iraqi capital.

Resentment has grown against the US-led troop presence there as violence has spiralled.

Despite a bitter, fiercely fought election campaign, Mr Bush said he was looking forward to working with Democrats.

"If you hold grudges in this line of work, you never get anything done," he said.

He said he would seek to find "common ground" with House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, who is set to become the first female speaker in the lower chamber.

Earlier she pledged that the Democrats would work with "civility" and "partnership, not partisanship" in their newly empowered position.

[spud_gun]

I think we can count ou tany invasion of Iran in the comming years.

The Iraq war will have ruined Americas appetite for large scale invasion the same way that Vietnam did for the generation before.

[NZRed]

Rumsfeld is gone - fantastic! Can anyone shed any light on Bob Gates??

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

It can only influence foreign policy in that the House controls the purse strings.

Still the Democrats aren't likely to go pulling up trees on that one. They are building for 2008 and cutting funding from Iraq will be seen as being non-supportive to the US servicemen and women.

Bush is a lame duck - as if he wasn't before - he was going the same way in his first term, it's just a shame that 9/11 happened, in an ironic way that basically saved his bacon.

[spud_gun]

Rumsfeld is gone - fantastic! Can anyone shed any light on Bob Gates??


He has a brother called Bill. Apparently he's a bit of a computer nerd.

[animal magic]

Rumsfeld is gone - fantastic! Can anyone shed any light on Bob Gates??


Mr Gates served as CIA director for just over a year in the early 1990s, during the presidency of Mr Bush's father, former President George Bush.

[Slim]

Thank God Rumsfeld is a goner. The guy's handling of the war has been a disaster.
One of the arch neo-cons is gone. Now for the rest hopefully.

[Neil Young]

Good news about Rumsfeld though frankly just losing his job is not enough for that f***er. He ought to be prosecuted for his failures.

Charlie's got it right - Bush is a lame duck. Sadly it's too late for Iraq but it could herald a change in international affairs. Coupled with the imminent end of Blair I think we see today the end of (failed) the neocon experiment.

I f****ng hope so anyway.

[spud_gun]

Coupled with the imminent end of Blair I think we see today the end of (failed) the neocon experiment.

I f****ng hope so anyway.

I think you'll find that Blair, Bush, Rumsfield, Chaney et al will not think of the neocon experiment as a failure. At least their bank balances won't. :sigh:

[Hollowman]

Wouldn't call it much of an experiment either. Cheney and Rumsfeld have held positions in the upper echelons of every Republican administration for thirty odd years.

[Neil Young]

Yes but their philosophy has changed over time. Look at the change since the first Gulf War - then they went through the UN and led a multinational force.

In contrast the Coalition of the Willing had few major partners for the US (e.g. countries from Micronesia which didn't add anything but a figleaf of respectability to the whole sordid enterprise) and was based on an entirely different doctrine (see NZRed's post in this forum) of preventive war.

Of course there are echoes of previous adventures in recent US policy but it has been presented by the instigators themselves as a break with previous strategy and certainly the use of military force as the dominant tool of foreign policy is new. The whole posture is in marked contrast to the isolationist strain in US political thinking with which the Republicans in particular have usually been identified.

Whether you call it an experiment or not, Iraq has killed this policy, the last 48 hours are merely the announcement of its death.

[Snigger]

They could yet lose the senate also - oh happy day, all we need now is Bush to put his hand up and stand down due to realisation that he is indeed a buffoon of the highest order.

[JRG]

Looks like the Senate is going democrat too. I am so glad that shit Rumsfeld has gone, now maybe things can begin to improve as I thouht that Rumsfeld would have made things worse in Iraq.

Neocons :whatever: you are being found out for the Nazis you are.