“President George Bush announced in April [18] 2006, ‘I’m the decider, and I decide what’s best. And what’s best is for Don Rumsfeld to remain as secretary of defense.’ In November, following loss of control of both houses of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections, the president changed his mind, replaced Rumsfeld with Robert Gates, a former director of the CIA, and pushed through a new plan to stave off outright civil war in Iraq with a short-term increase of U.S. forces by 30,000 referred to as ‘the surge.’ “
– Thomas Powers, The Military Error, Page 138