"...except to convictions of honor and good sense."

I once had a boss who would stake out a position on an issue early on and who simply would not reconsider it no matter how much new information came to light. Sometime the new info showed that the original presumptions (which were not unreasonable at the time) were either clearly false or highly dubious at best. I consider this trait a form of neurosis but I'm no psychologist.

This came to mind today whan I read an article in the Washington Post about the funeral of Casper Weinberger. It said

Rumsfeld preferred to remember the unyielding Weinberger. "For many years, a quote from Winston Churchill hung in Cap Weinberger's office," he said. "It said: Never give in -- never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in." Rumsfeld left out the rest of Churchill's famous phrase: "except to convictions of honor and good sense."

I suspect that people like my former boss have a fear of being accused of "flip flopping" that is much greater than their fear of being dead wrong. Well, Gallileo flip flopped on his views of astronomy after his observations showed that the earth-centric view of the universe was CLEARLY WRONG (although not unreasonable at the time it was initially posited).

I agree with former CENTCOM commander General Tony Zinni (Ret.) - Rumsfeld should be fired. Watch the video if you want to see what straight talk looks like.

MR. RUSSERT: Should someone resign?

GEN. ZINNI: Absolutely.

MR. RUSSERT: Who?

GEN. ZINNI: Secretary of defense, to begin with.

MR. RUSSERT: Anyone else?

GEN. ZINNI: Well, I think that, that we—that those that have been responsible for the planning, for overriding all the, the efforts that were made in planning before that, that those that stood by and allowed this to happen, that didn’t speak out. And there are appropriate ways within the system you can speak out, at congressional hearings and otherwise. I think they have to be held accountable.

The point is, those that are in power now that have been part of this are finding that their time is spent defending the past. And if they have to defend the past, they’re unable to make the kinds of changes, adjustments, admit the mistakes and move on. And that’s where we are now, trying to rewrite history, defend the past, ridiculous statements that, “Well, wait 20 years and history will tell you how this turns out.” Well, I don’t think anybody wants 20 years to continue like it is now.

MR. RUSSERT: Should the president say to the country, “I was wrong about weapons of mass destruction, wrong about troop levels, wrong about the cost of the war, wrong about the level of insurgency. But we need to put all that behind us and come together as a nation, because this is too important to lose”?

GEN. ZINNI: I, I think the president of the United States ought to certainly say that there were mistakes made at each of those levels. In some cases, these were presented to him. It may not be necessarily the case that he was wrong. He was given bad information. Every president in history has held people accountable and moved on. Look at President Lincoln in the conduct of the war. He went through every general till he found Grant. Senator McCain mentioned Douglas MacArthur. Well, when he screwed up, the president relieved him. You know, you have to make tough choices. You know, integrity and getting on with the mission and doing it right is more important than loyalty. Both are great traits, but integrity, honesty and performance and competence have to outweigh, in this business, loyalty.

Full transcript here.