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Rumsfeld Memo Asks DoD Leaders to Focus on Big Questions [Di Rita debunks media spin]
DoD - American Forces Press Service ^
| Oct. 22, 2003
| Jim Garamone
Posted on 10/22/2003 1:28:04 PM PDT by Ragtime Cowgirl

Rumsfeld Memo Asks DoD Leaders to Focus on Big Questions
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2003 Far from being a glum assessment, a memo Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent to senior leaders is questions Rumsfeld believes leaders should be asking about the new security environment, Larry Di Rita, Pentagon spokesman, said here today.
A story about the memo appeared in today's issue of USA Today. The story characterizes the questions Rumsfeld raised as an admission that the United States is losing the war on terror. "The secretary's not saying anything like what the memo's been characterized (as saying)," Di Rita said during a press conference.
The spokesman said the secretary is asking the "big questions" that any government agency should be asking itself.
The memo was addressed to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine Gen. Peter Pace and Defense Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, and was dated Oct. 16.
"What he's doing is elevating the perspective of the leadership of this department and asking: 'I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're on my mind, and I want them on your mind, too,'" Di Rita said.
At the heart of the memo is a continuing Rumsfeld priority transforming the department to face new, more amorphous threats. The memo asks Defense leaders to pull back from the day-to-day matters of the global war on terrorism and focus farther down the playing field.
The Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld wants the leaders to examine what the department should look like -- how they'd configure it if they had a blank sheet of paper. DoD was created at the end of World War II to face a far different threat from that of today's world, Di Rita said. Would the department look the same "if we knew that we could start over with the challenges that we face going forward?"
Di Rita said he was surprised by the USA Today story. "This is a question that Secretary Rumsfeld has been asking in a variety of ways since he took office," he said. "The need to transform, the need to rethink all of the long-standing ways we approach problems is just not breaking news when it comes to Secretary Rumsfeld's sense of urgency."
Di Rita said the memo is not an immediate action tasking. "These are clearly big questions that deserve big thinking," he said, and the memo's recipients are the people who "will be able to engage the rest of this institution into that kind of thinking," Di Rita added.
The memo was generated to get the recipients to "think outside the box," said DoD officials. Among other things, the secretary asked if the changes the U.S. military has made to date are too small. Can the department change fast enough to counter terrorists, or should a whole new institution fight terrorism?
Di Rita said that while the memo mentions progress in Afghanistan and Iraq, "that's manifestly not what this memo's about. What this memo is about is going forward well beyond the horizon that any one of us is going to be serving. Are we prepared or postured in a way that will win what we've all said is going to be a long-term fight?"
TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: rumsfeldmemo
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
The spokesman said the secretary is asking the "big questions" that any government agency should be asking itself. Well, any government except France and a Democrat government. They'd have surrendered by now.
2
posted on
10/22/2003 1:31:27 PM PDT
by
concerned about politics
( Have you donated to the Salvation Army? Liberals HATE Christian organizations! Tax deductable, too)
To: MJY1288; Calpernia; Grampa Dave; anniegetyourgun; Ernest_at_the_Beach; BOBTHENAILER; ...
The story characterizes the questions Rumsfeld raised as an admission that the United States is losing the war on terror. "The secretary's not saying anything like what the memo's been characterized (as saying)," Di Rita said during a press conference. The spokesman said the secretary is asking the "big questions" that any government agency should be asking itself.
~~~
I KNOW SOD Rumsfeld's been asking these questions for months. Press covering this war owes the troops and America far better than the lazy job they're doing.
Adults in charge, ping!
Press, read the briefings!
~~~
If you want on or off my Pro-Coalition ping list, please Freepmail me. Warning: it is a high volume ping list on good days. (Most days are good days).
3
posted on
10/22/2003 1:31:32 PM PDT
by
Ragtime Cowgirl
(“Praises be to God, it's finally safe to come out again.” ~ Haider Saffa, Iraqi tool salesman, 10/6)
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Climbing out on my limb time..but..remember the CIA leaker...well, this also was leaked..could this be a trap to catch the leaker?..easy to do..only four copies right, so you make a small punctuation change in the four copies..this way you know which one was leak, and thus, the general location of the leaker..
4
posted on
10/22/2003 1:37:15 PM PDT
by
ken5050
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
"What he's doing is elevating the perspective of the leadership of this department and asking: 'I don't know the answers to these questions, but they're on my mind, and I want them on your mind, too,'" Di Rita said. Brainstorming is a great idea. Our founding fathers did it all the time. That's how they came up with the Constitution.
A story about the memo appeared in today's issue of USA Today. The story characterizes the questions Rumsfeld raised as an admission that the United States is losing the war on terror.
Don't they wish. It must be strange to live in their hate filled sense of reality. Ugh.
5
posted on
10/22/2003 1:37:26 PM PDT
by
concerned about politics
( Have you donated to the Salvation Army? Liberals HATE Christian organizations! Tax deductable, too)
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Bump!
To: Ragtime Cowgirl; All
HILLARY was heard in the Meda blasting the Pentagon over this Memo.
HILLARY is a sitting member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Again, I ask:
.."IS it SAFE?" = HILLARY on Senate Armed Services Committee..
http://www.TheAlamoFILM.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=629
7
posted on
10/22/2003 1:47:36 PM PDT
by
ALOHA RONNIE
(Vet-Battle of IA DRANG-1965 www.LZXRAY.)
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
I heard the news reports about the memo and ignored them. Then I saw the large point headline on msnbc.com: "GRIM OUTLOOK - Rumsfeld questions terror war strategy" and decided to read the actual memo. Obviously, the person who wrote the headline and article about the memo has never been on any important project. We used to get memos like that all the time where I used to work. Even though our company was one of the most successful in the software business, you'd think from reading the memos that we were going bankrupt the next day!
The boss, Rumsfeld, is trying to provoke open discussion in the team by being the Devil's Advocate. He's saying "we suck" and challenging his team to tell him why he's wrong. That's all. There's no crisis or serious doubt or "grim outlook".
I'm old enough that I shouldn't be surprised by the idiocy of the media. I guess it's good to get a refresher occasionally. This one should hold me over for a few years.
8
posted on
10/22/2003 1:54:11 PM PDT
by
mikegi
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
Didn't know if you checked your freepmail... but Rummy will be live on FOX soon.
9
posted on
10/22/2003 2:10:19 PM PDT
by
Pan_Yans Wife
(You may forget the one with whom you have laughed, but never the one with whom you have wept.)
To: Pan_Yans Wife
I heard ABC's Peter Jennings on the radio in the car a little while ago spinning this memo...how concern was high on Capitol Hill, blah, blah, blah...then they had a sound bite from Daschle whining.
There was a closed-door meeting between the SecDef and congressional leaders a couple of hours ago. I hope Rummy tore them a new one--wish I could have been a fly on that wall.
The RAT's partisanship knows no bounds--but we already knew that.
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
it is so good to see that we are finally daring to ask the questions needed to understand what is needed to protect us.
you're right again, RCgirl ... adults in charge...
11
posted on
10/22/2003 3:07:54 PM PDT
by
AFPhys
(((PRAYING for: President Bush & advisors, troops & families, Americans)))
To: ken5050
Could be, ken. He's wiley - and decent.
Also, not worried at the press's latest quagmirization attempt.
12
posted on
10/22/2003 3:36:15 PM PDT
by
Ragtime Cowgirl
(“No one else helped us, only the Americans." ~ Mahmud Al-Jaburi, Iraqi police General, 10/1)
To: ALOHA RONNIE
Hillary and her gang are boringly predictable.
Thanks for continuing to warn us that we need to stay awake, Ronnie.
13
posted on
10/22/2003 3:43:12 PM PDT
by
Ragtime Cowgirl
(“No one else helped us, only the Americans." ~ Mahmud Al-Jaburi, Iraqi police General, 10/1)
To: mikegi
I'm old enough that I shouldn't be surprised by the idiocy of the mediaAmericans have generous hearts. We keep expecting the left-press to wake up and help us save our nation, instead of selling it to the highest, most-fashionably dressed, powerful bidder on the world stage.
A few reporters on my mailing list haven't blocked my e-mail address. (^;
14
posted on
10/22/2003 3:47:33 PM PDT
by
Ragtime Cowgirl
(“No one else helped us, only the Americans." ~ Mahmud Al-Jaburi, Iraqi police General, 10/1)
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
BUMP
To: ALOHA RONNIE
I also understand the Daschle is extremely....concerned.
16
posted on
10/22/2003 8:44:35 PM PDT
by
Valin
(A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject)
To: Valin
DASCHLE = HILLARY Mouthpiece
17
posted on
10/22/2003 8:46:34 PM PDT
by
ALOHA RONNIE
(Vet-Battle of IA DRANG-1965 www.LZXRAY.)
To: Ragtime Cowgirl
The media and dems are trumpeting the dire meaning of this one leaked 'snowflake' when, according to Brett Baer of Fox, there has been a blizzard of them over a period of months.
Intelligent adults in charge.
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