He's The Decider

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. officials were warned for more than two years that Shiite Muslim militias were infiltrating Iraq's security forces and taking control of neighborhoods, but they failed to take action to counteract it, Iraqi and American officials said.

Now American officials call the militias the primary security concern in Iraq, blaming them for more civilian deaths than the Sunni Muslim-based insurgency and demanding that the Iraqi government move quickly to stem their influence. ...

Iraqi politicians said they tried to get the Americans to intervene. They were met with sympathetic words but little action.

"The American politicians couldn't understand the deepness and complications of the region," said Falah al-Nakib, the interior minister from June 2004 to April 2005, who said he raised the militia problem and the growing Iranian influence in Iraq with U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. "They didn't take us seriously."

Al-Nakib said the Americans seemed convinced last year that elections for an interim government in January 2005 and for a permanent government in December would lead the Shiite parties to curb the militias. Instead, the bodies of Sunnis continued to pile up.

U.S. officials long have known that the Shiite militias could become a problem.

Officials in Washington said alarms about the growing power of the militias began in late 2003 and were raised throughout 2004 and 2005 by a variety of agencies, including the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

Senior officials dismissed the reports as "nay-saying" and "hand-wringing," said two former senior officials in Washington who were responsible for Iraq policy through most or all of that period and one top official who remains in government.

-----

BUSH: And on Friday, I stood up and said I don't appreciate the speculation about Don Rumsfeld. He's doing a fine job. I strongly support him.

Q: Well, what do you say to critics who believe that you're ignoring the advice of retired generals, military commanders, who say that there needs to be a change?

BUSH: I say I listen to all voices. But mine's the final decision. And Don Rumsfeld is doing a fine job. He's not only transforming the military, he's fighting a war on terror - he's helping us fight a war on terror. I have strong confidence in Don Rumsfeld.

I hear the voices. And I read the front page. And I know the speculation. But I'm the decider and I decide what is best. And what's best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as the secretary of defense.

And that's final! He's the daddy, and what he says goes. It's so because he says so, and he knows what's best. Now shut up and do your homework.

(On the up side, it is good to know that he now at least reads at least the front page.)