so like many, i got an email from john kerry in my inbox today. if you want to sign the petition to replace rumsfield, click on the link below.

http://www.johnkerry.com/replacerumsfeld

a portion of the email:

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WHY RUMSFELD HAS TO GO!

1) Rumsfeld Blamed The Troops for Problems in IRAQ

Rumsfeld: "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." [CNN, 12/9/04]

2) Rumsfeld Admitted Bush Administration Was Not Prepared for Iraqi Resistance

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted that "I am saying that -- if you had said to me a year ago, 'describe the situation you'll be in today, one year later,' I don't know many people who would have described it -- I would not have described it -- the way it happens to be today. ... I certainly would not have estimated that we would have had the number of individuals lost that we have had lost in the last week." [Rumsfeld News Conference, 4/15/04]

3) Rumsfeld Failed to Equip Troops in Iraq

Army Study Suggests One-Fourth of Casualties in Iraq Could Have Been Prevented If Troops Were Properly-Equipped at Beginning of War. Newsweek reported, "A breakdown of the casualty figures suggests that many U.S. deaths and wounds in Iraq simply did not need to occur. According to an unofficial study by a defense consultant that is now circulating through the Army, of a total of 789 Coalition deaths as of April 15 (686 of them Americans), 142 were killed by land mines or improvised explosive devices, while 48 others died in rocket-propelled-grenade attacks. Almost all those soldiers were killed while in unprotected vehicles, which means that perhaps one in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had stronger armor around them, the study suggested. Thousands more who were unprotected have suffered grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs." [Newsweek, 5/3/04]

4) Rumsfeld Failed to Plan for Iraq War

In August 2003, the Joint Chiefs of Staff prepared a secret report assessing the post-war planning for Iraq. The report blamed "setbacks in Iraq on a flawed and rushed war-planning process." It also said "planners were not given enough time" to plan for reconstruction. [Washington Times, 9/3/03]

5) Rumsfeld Failed To Sign Condolence Letters to Families of Soldiers Killed in War on Terror

ABC World News Tonight, "Now on the home front here, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is under fire from some military families and members of the Congress. They're upset that he has used a machine to attach his signature to some letters of condolence. More than a thousand of those letters have been sent to families who have lost sons and daughters in the global war on terror." ABC (Yang) added, "After Ivan Medina's twin brother Irving an Army Specialist was killed in Baghdad last year he got a letter of condolence from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Today, Medina himself a veteran of Iraq said he was angered to learn that Rumsfeld never actually signed the letter or even saw it." Medina: "Our commanders here in the United States who include the President and the Secretary of Defense don't care about the troops. We're just a number to them and that's the wrong message to send back to our troops." Yang: "In a statement Rumsfeld said he used a machine." [ABC World News Tonight, 12/19/04]

Notes:

1. MSNBC, January 13, 2005

2. CNN, December 9, 2004

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