Rumsfeld: Combating Those Who Place Careers Before Country

CNSNews.com ^ | October 24, 2001 | Paul M. Weyrich

[WyldKard]

Well geeze, Rumsfeld has hardly been in charge, and he didn't have ANY influence over the last 8 years, which REALLY screwed the pooch on this country. I think he's doing a pretty good job, given the tough situation he's been handed.

The actions of the media have been atrocious. This is just like that SNL skit from the Gulf War, where reporters are asking Gen. Schwartzkof (sp) questions like "What information can you tell us would be most damaging to US morale?" and "Where could Saddams Scud missles be fired to cause the most damage." And then the guy from the Bagdad Times asks "When is the ground invasion going to begin?"

Why does the media ask questions they KNOW shouldn't be asked?!

[KSCITYBOY]

Wyldkard I got to agree with you 100% of your post. The part about the media also. I we had had the same media approach in WWII half of us would be speaking German and the other half in work camps in Japan. I can hear the media now: Is it true that we've been training B-25 pilots to lauch off a carrier deck? Would this mean were are going to bomb a major city in Japan? Is general Doolittle currently enroute to Pearl Harbor? BTW I was all wrong about you.

[LurkingSince'98]

hey hog',

you sound just like a Democratic Underground poseur. Maybe you can find more sympathetic ears over on the DU site.

you sure your where you want to be?

Regards, Lurking'

[OldFriend]

Just heard that wild pigs are a protected specie in Germany, head on back home!

[Topaz]

The media will do what the media always does, spill the beans.

This particular issue that Weyrich sites is a Defense Department issue. Rumsfield needs to make time to root out the leakers and kick thier butts!

[WyldKard]

So we hire a security company. Lets call it American Defense Company (ADC). They tell us they'll protect us and we give them a nice office, lots of computers and phones and lots of money and an army to use to protect our interests.

They have the job for eight months. This thief and murderer hits us anyway, and does a lot of damage and kills employees. ADC comes back and says "Well, we weren't ready. Here's another plan. Maybe this one'll work."

Okay, let me take your analogy, spin it around, and give it back to you.

For the last eight years, The United Executive Corporation, parent company of ADC, had a real moron as Chairman of the Board....heck, lets say the entire Board of Chairmen were idiots. This CEO totally guts ADC's funding, cripples their ability to get their job done, accepts bribes and graft, and essentially commits actions that make it easier and more desirable for thieves to break in to ABC.

The shareholders vote, and after a messy proxy battle, a new Board of Chairmen is installed. The first thing the CEO fo ADC corporation says "Wow..this is mess, but we'll do our best with what we have." Eight months later, thieves and murderers hit. Who do we assign the most blame to? The new CEO that was hamstrung by the last Chairmans incompotence, or the incompetant ex-Chairman who created the situation in the first place?

You seem very quick to blame Rumsfield for this, and aren't even TOUCHING any of the things that Clinton really did to us.

One way or the other, 9/11 was coming. People got stupid and complacent. Our military was being gutted. Give Rumsfield a CHANCE first, befoer calling for his head on a pike. I'd like to wait until the Sky Marshall botches up the Klendathu invasion before we toss him out (Bonus points to the first geek who gets the reference :)

I'm VERY surprised you are blaming mostly Rumsfield for this, and aren't saying a thing about the CIA, either.

[Republican Wildcat]

LOL

[McGavin999]

LOL, you had me fooled there for a minute. I was about to hit you with a real FLAME, but then I realized that nobody could be that stupid, so you just have to be pulling our leg.

ROTFLMCO, good job, you really came across as an ignorant dolt.

[Jim Scott]

So we blame CEOs and chairmen all the way back to George Washington?

According to your logic, since Rumsfeld was Defense Secretary 25 years ago and returned to the position in January it's all his fault. Nonsense.
Plenty of blame to go around but your quick dismissal of Bush and those around him in the face of a good performance since September 11th smacks of a bias that transcends mere concern over staff quality.
Your aversion to recognizing Clinton's eight-year attack and dismemberment of the CIA, FBI and Defense Department along with the weakening of our military is strange, but yet you leap to condemn people in office for barely eight months for the September 11th attack. Some responsibilty is due to the Bush team, yes, but not to the extent you place on them.

[Twodees]

You said it, buddy. The fact that none of these careerists have even offered to resign says volumes about what they're made of. I have about three cents' worth of confidence in the whole dogpile of them. The latest addition, Ridge, is as bad as the worst of the cabinet before he came aboard, which is CT Whitman.

[america-rules]

You are blaming the DOD for something they were not responsible for before 11 Sept 2001.

Your whole analysis is 1000% wrong because you don't know who is actually responsible for what went wrong on 11 Sept.

[independentmind]

Rumsfeld is a man of the world and no fool. So, 9/11 was either incompetence or apathy or a complete failure of intelligence. It would seem a lot of the world, except the American public, knew how bad the first attack might be.

Rumsfeld inherited a Pentagon that suffered through at least eight years of serious mismanagement. Are you aware of the systems fiaso alone which has left millions and millions of dollars worth of equipment unaccounted for? If you are looking for people to blame, I would start with the FBI and CIA.