The Donald Rumsfeld I know isn't the one you know

St. Paul Pioneer Press ^ | Nov. 12, 2006 | Douglas J. Feith

[Moose Dung]

This is a keeper.

[VirginiaMom]

mark for later reading

[freekitty]

No wonder the dems are afraid of him. He is natural leader and thinker.

[Nancee]

You are soooooooo right "rhema"!!

But for me, all I did was listen to him via the TV...he makes sinse, is clearly in possession of a good mind, and is "...a gentleman and a scholar..."...articulate...wise...the list goes on and on. I think so many people have lost the ability to think for THEMSELVES. It is hard NOT to see what a great man he is.

Thanks!!!

Nancee

[A_perfect_lady]

Very well written. Nice summary. And this is the view I always had of Rummy.

[ADemocratNoMore]

bttt

[woofie]

I agree that Rumsfelds departure is a sad event but in politics 5 years is a lifetime ....we should rejoice he was able to accomplish what he did

[ChocChipCookie]

the Rumsfeld caricature

Interesting tactic of the left. They create a caricature of someone, react to that caricature as though it were the real person, and before long, most Americans believe the caricature more than their own eyes and ears. In the MSM, and probably to most Americans, President Bush IS the caricature created by the left.

[mountainfolk]

Thank you for this Rumsfeld post. The election loss did not affect me much beyond knowing the terrible casualties our troops in Iraq will suffer, and the slaughter of the Iraq people when the Rats manage to facilitate a Viet Nam type pullout. What did cause me a visceral reaction was the hasty announcement that Donald Rumsfeld was resigning/fired. The way it was done sickened me. I could accept that he was leaving, but it was like he was being given the bums rush while the votes were still being counted. We have traded a giant patriot for a socialist anti-American passel of RATS.

[jpl]

As I see it, the biggest problem in the current political situation is increasingly we are asking the military to do things that they are not really significantly trained to do.

We still train most of our troops primarily to fight conventional warfare as we always have, but more and more we are demanding that they conduct policework, security, and local political affairs in areas that we don't understand all that well.

This is the sort of work that is best done by Special Ops guys, spies, diplomats, and contractors. If we have reached the point where we can no longer fight conventionally (which means killing the enemy in very large numbers) because of collateral damage concerns, then we really need to transform the way we train our forces.

[ChessExpert]

Excellent article. Thanks for posting.

Rumsfeld is impressive in a televised briefing with questions and answers. It is the press that depresses. Rumsfeld is smart and substantive, and he is remarkably patient dealing with an often juvenile and hostile press. Unfortunately many Americans never see Rumsfeld or Bush directly. Instead "their" thoughts and opinions are handed to them from the juvenile and hostile main stream media.

[Shery]

We will rue the day that he resigned, I am afraid. I hope that we will not be prosecuted, as that is the left's knee-jerk reaction to not having their cake to eat too. They wanted to be on board as being conscientious Americans, worried about our safety, but they didn't want to do any more than 'Clintoon' had done with his cruise missiles, shooting across the desert and killing a few odd camels and taking out a pharmaceutical factory. That was enough for them...scare a few desert gnats and be done with it. They didn't bargain on a real war, one that they might have to complete. It should be interesting to see what happens now.

[TAdams8591]

"What I saw, however, was that Rumsfeld questioned standard military recommendations for "overwhelming force."

Yes, but unfortunately the military ended up using underwhelming force. I do believe however, Rumsfield would have used more ground troops if the Generals wanted them. This however, would have resulted in more casulties and possibly a more premature end to the war, precisely the reason the Generals wanted to keep the numbers of ground troops lower.

It is most unfortunate. I have the deepest respect and regard for Rumsfeld, a true American patriot.

[MNJohnnie]

Pretty tough to set the record straight when both the Dincons and the Surrender Now Leftists will simply refuse to listen to anything that does not validate their emotion based opinons about Rummy

[freema]

Thanks for posting!

[mulligan]

That is so true. He was the smartest man in town. And now we go from a great "Rummy" to an old re-tread dummy. So sad and so bad for this nation.

[aumrl]

"He was the right man for transforming our offensive and "conventional" armed forces, but not the right man for understanding the current phase of operations in Iraq." GREAT POST. AGREE 100%

[MizSterious]

"Rummy's only crime was to be the smartest guy in the room."

And when the room is full of "journalists," that's a terrible crime indeed.

[ilovew]

That is the Rumsfeld I know. The DoD won't be the same without him.

[irv]

And when the room is full of "journalists," that's a terrible crime indeed.

And yet, when the room is full of journalists, it's very hard to avoid.