An appropriate check -but to what avail?

The news that Donald Rumsfeld has fallen on his sword (or been pushed) in the wake of the much vaunted anti-bellum vote represented by resounding Democrat victories in the mid term Congressional election (here) comes as no surprise.
It is, I suppose, an appropriate reminder to all in power that they are all vulnerable. But does it really achieve anything. The Americans (and we as the 52nd state!) are still 'twixt the rock and the hard place. The damage has been done, and evacuating now will, one suspects, not actually make the country a safer place in the short term. But the war ( one suggests) was never about making Iraq safe, it was about the politics of oil. And what that was all about, who knows.
The other war mongers, Cheney, in particular remain firmly ensconced. Bush will limp with ever increasing ignominy to the end of a lame-duck Presidency. And hundreds of people have died.
The Howards and the Downers will continue to justify this awful war. And I am left with the reminder of how in the pre-war days week after week thousands of us marched against the war and were ignored by our government.
What has been achieved?
Well for our sins the evil Saddam will ultimately be executed and no one has raised their voice to say the death penalty is objectively wrong.
What a mess!