Posted on 04/25/2006 12:50:15 PM PDT by libstripper
WASHINGTON - Everyone is saying that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld’s days are numbered, thanks in part to increasing calls by some former generals for Rumsfeld’s resignation.
But Rumsfeld was hired by George W. Bush to do precisely what he has done to the consternation of the generals who are now coming out to complain about him.
When President Bush brought Rumsfeld back to the Pentagon, the president told him to shake up the Pentagon, to transform it from the Cold War structure and culture that it was stuck in to a new force with strategies that could respond to the post-Cold War world.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Everyone in the MSM perhaps...... but the Secretary doesn't work for them!
Excellent analysis. You don't hear the media making note that all of the current administration's detractors found their positions during the Clinton administration. Their failures (Zinni, Shineski, Clarke, McCarthy, Wilson, Plame, etc., etc.) are too many to be listed here without boring the freepers.
The bad news for Zinni, et. al., is that Van Riper hails from the W.T. Sherman/Curtis LeMay school of thought and is criticizing Rummy for not busting enough heads over there.
That is great political commentary and also presents an interesting apolitical perspective on Secretary Rumsfeld's position. No one should be surprised that Secretary Rumsfeld has met resistance in his transformation project. Indeed, human nature almost invariably resists change simply because change can be so unsettling, especially to people holding a vested interest in the status quo. The military may well be better served in the long run by the continuation of Rumsfeld as Defense Secretary so the transformation can proceed as planned. However, the President is taking the political hit for this and also for Rumsfeld's decidely gruff style. Perhaps the President would be better served letting the Secretary retire and hiring another individual to continue the transformation project. 'Cause you know what they say: The graveyard is full of indispensible people.
Months before Sept. 11, as Rumsfeld began the transformation of the Pentagon, he ran into contumacious obstructionism from the army and its then-Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki. Shinseki dug his heels in and refused to change much of anything about the Army.
Shinseki went as far as to go behind Rumsfeld’s back to the Senate where his political mentor (and long-time family friend, Sen. Dan Inouye of Hawaii) and others backed his play.
But for the political cover Sen. Inouye gave Shinseki, he might have been fired then and there. Civilian control of the military means people such as Shinseki cannot be allowed to play the back-channel political games he played again and again.
Shinseki balked at striking at the Taliban. For the record, our forces slashed into the Taliban around Oct. 5, 2001, less than a month after Sept 11. But — aside from Rangers and Army Special Forces — the Army stayed home.
Shinseki wanted at least six months to assemble and move an enormous Soviet-like force into Afghanistan and the president wasn’t having any of it. This is why Shinseki retired in 2003 with a festering grudge against Rumsfeld.
And then Rumsfeld did the unthinkable. Instead of replacing Shinseki with one of his like-minded underlings, Rumsfeld looked for someone who would fight.
Gen. Peter Schoomaker, a Special Forces vet, was brought out of retirement to transform the Army in the middle of a war. And he did it. But in the process Rumsfeld, Schoomaker and his team shook up a lot of people.
The Baltimore Examiner? Is there now a conservative daily paper in B'More to compete with The Sun? If so, great!
Interesting.....
President Bush would never abandon the reformation of the Pentagon and America's future to the whiners who have interest only in themselves with no care at all for the security of this country.
The same ones who say Rummy's days are numbered are the same rocket scientists who say the Republicans will nominte John McPain.
These 6 Generals are part of the CABAL!! Zinni and co. aare coup-plotters.
There's 8 generals now...and the latest one is a Republican. He said last night he'd always voted republican.
Don Rumsfeld is the BEST!! Shinsheki is a weenie cabalist who can't think of a way out of a paper bag.
Rumsfeld brought several Generals from various area of the country into the pentagon...shaking the pentagon up. Most of these generals are very patriotic and not toons' perfume generals'.
Somewhere along the line they forgot their duty to those now serving. If they would have RESIGNED in PROTEST during the run up to the war AND THEN started opining I would have respect for them but as it is these REAL Generals are playing armchair generals AFTER the fact.
"There's 8 generals now...and the latest one is a Republican. He said last night he'd always voted republican."
Correction:
He said, "I've always voted Republican on the presidential level."
He doesn't claim to have voted Republican for lesser offices, including senatorial candidates et al.
Was he army?
Here is a start...I am looking more into Shinseki .
Jed Babbin
Former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense (Bush 41), and best-selling author of Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe Are Worse Than You Think.
Mr. Babbin is a military and foreign affairs analyst and appears regularly on top-rated shows on the major broadcast networks to offer his expertise.
He is a regular guest host for several national radio programs, notably the Laura Ingraham Show, Oliver North's "Common Sense Radio," and the Hugh Hewitt and Greg Garrison shows.
Articles by Jed:
http://familysecuritymatters.org/terrorism.php?id=19921
http://familysecuritymatters.org/contributing_editors.php?PHPSESSID=21921b288fa00a955b81886f66ffa914
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