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Let's kick off with this email from Ohio:

Christopher“I would guess that Rumsfeld looked forward to an eternity of being grilled by congressmen and women about everything he did. He will probably end up getting a nice highly paid job in the private sector where he doesn't really have to be accountable to anybody.�

And up on the phone:

Rob from the UK says: "There’s a lot of anger being directed against Bush and Rumsfeld. Anger should be directed towards your European allies who do nothing but criticize you. Your so called allies, the Germans, the French sit back and offer no support. It’s only Tony Blair that has supported you. America is trying to help. When it does help it gets criticized, when it doesn’t help it gets criticized. They are in a catch 22 postion."

Some comments from our Cleveland Audience:

“The war on terror is not in Iraq and never was.�

“We need to bring diplomacy back. We’re wasting our time on Iraq. We need to win the hearts and minds of the worlds Muslims.�

Chrisfrom Canada responds to Rumsfeld’s resignation with the following email:

“What’s the atheist equivalent of hallelujah?�

More comments from the audience:

“The US seems to feel we can give democracy. This is an illusion that is very short sited.�

“The minimum wage is going to be raised. We are going to get rid of these elitist neo-cons. We have the first Muslim African American in congress.�

“The biggest problem in American voting is that not enough people do it.�

The conversation has now moved on to Iraq with a caller from Baghdad:

Lubna in Baghdad: “I have great admiration for American democracy. I’m not optimistic about the current situation in Iraq. I don’t think the Democrats will do much for us. We live in a very harsh situation in Iraq. The American troops invaded our country three years ago. If they left now they would leave a mess behind them.�

Clayton in Texas says: “I would volunteer to go back to Baghdad if we had sufficient troops to do the job in the right way�

Response from the audience:

“Having the Democrats in power will mean more dialogue and a change for Iraq. They will be able to reach out to the international community.�

“Terrorism is not just a problem of the United States. It is a global problem. Bush needs to start building a global community that can work on the war on terror together.�And here's a text message:

“Terrorism is not just a problem of the United States. It is a global problem. Bush needs to start building a global community that can work on the war on terror together.�

George from Germany called in to the programme to say: “It’s all about Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. We in the Western world have to face one problem; and that is Islamic extremism. The plans for the 9/11 attacks began long before George Bush was president. America is pulling back and this is not correct.�

And final thoughts from the audience:

“We need to be very concerned about the control of the senate�

“I’m hoping we can address the higher education issue. I’d love to see something done with that.�

“I’m hoping we can have an honest dialogue with the international community.�