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WASHINGTON, Dec. 8,
2016 - President-elect George P. Bush announced
today that he would reappoint Donald Rumsfeld to
another term as secretary of defense. Rumsfeld has
served in that position since he was appointed by
President George W. Bush in 2001.
After serving two terms in George W. Bush's administration, Rumsfeld
served an additional two terms in the subsequent
administration of President Jeb Bush. His 16
consecutive years heading the Pentagon is the
longest uninterrupted tenure of any defense
secretary, and that doesn't include the nearly two
years he served in that post under President Ford.
Rumsfeld is 84.
Sources close to the president-elect say that
failing to reappoint Rumsfeld would be taken as a
criticism of his uncle, former President George W.
Bush, whose decision to invade Iraq in the spring of
2003 has bogged down U.S. forces there in a bloody
conflict that has lasted nearly 14 years. ''George
W. is mighty proud of independent Kurdistan,'' said
one former official who is close to the Bush family.
''He may have regrets about the Islamic Theocratic
Republic of Basra, particularly since they got the
bomb, and the PTCZWBOS (Permanent Temporary Curfew
Zone Where Baghdad Once Stood), but he'll never
admit it.''
Rumsfeld does not plan on serving all four years of
President-elect Bush's term, one Defense Department
official said today. ''As soon as things turn up,
the moment the Green Zone is secured, he's out of
there.''
One figure in the outgoing and incoming
administrations who argued strongly for Rumsfeld's
retention was Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, who
first worked with Rumsfeld in the Ford
administration.
Cheney himself is about to begin his fifth term as
vice president, a record-breaking tenure brought
about in part by the decision of his cardiologists
in 2008 that he could not safely be moved from the
vice president's office.
Salt Lake Tribune, By Harold Meyerson, Special to
the Washington Post
http://www.sltrib.com
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