It’s about damn time.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld tendered his resignation Tuesday after Democrats took the House in midterm elections. As this article went to print, the Senate teetered precariously between Democratic and Republican control.

America is not happy with the way the war has gone – and with good reason.

Almost 3,000 Americans have died, and for what? Rumsfeld and his cohorts sent in troops – their own countrymen – with a bone-headed plan that was doomed from the start. They sent lambs to the slaughter, and there’s more death to come.

And while we’re talking about loss of life, let’s reflect a bit on the plight of the Iraqi people. A weak police force, a virtually non-existent army, a lack of effective leadership – and we aren’t still being celebrated as liberators?

Saddam’s conviction is a hollow victory. The dictator is out of power, but chaos has taken his place. And with Americans getting increasingly antsy about leaving our troops out to dry, it looks like Iraq will have to build a functioning government from scrap.

Good call, guys.

It’s not just Rumsfeld, though. The gall of President Bush to declare “Mission Accomplished” after weeks of combat is, in retrospect, the height of hubris. What makes him or anyone else in Washington think that we can create a new country – because that’s what happens when you change the government, laws and leaders – in the span of months?

The post of Secretary of Defense is not one to be taken lightly. There’s no room for arrogance or toying with American lives. Patriotic rhetoric can’t mask the fact that we’re losing the war, and we have no one to blame but ourselves.

Anyone who can’t handle reality, who dismisses tough questions from reporters as undermining the government, isn’t fit to be a police officer (much less in charge of the Pentagon). If you’re making good decisions, you shouldn’t be afraid to defend them.

Ed Board hopes that Rumsfeld and Bush search their consciences long and hard about what they’ve done to thousands of American families and the reputation of America in general. Going into war grossly under-prepared is not only inexcusable, it’s flirting with criminal negligence.

Rumsfeld has blood on his hands. It’s Ed Board’s fervent hope that we won’t be able to say the same of his successor.