[MadIvan]

A good defence secretary, in my view, would not be afraid to rock the boat. Carry on, Donald.

Regards, Ivan

[MadIvan]

Bump!

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

If Rumsfeld has made Congress mad then he's doing what we pay him to do.

[leadpenny]

Purges are never painless. I believe Marshall forced many two- and three-stars into retirement at the beginning of WWII. In addition to Rummy cleaning house, I'm sure the long knives are out amongst the top brass also.

[Petronius]

For every blue-rinsed matron sighing with delight at Rummy’s repartee, there appears to be a general who is complaining about civilian ideologues pressing for war on Iraq with scant regard for military consequences.

What do those generals know! Consequences shmonsequences!

[FryingPan101]

"He has lit fires under everybody. Some people respond well to that and some people don’t.”

'Nuf said?

[scamsam]

In the words of a former third base coach for the Boston Red Sox, "Show me someone everyone likes and I'll show you someone who has never made a decession."

[uncbob]

Clinton RUINED the USA Military

Let's hope that Runy can find some decent officers that didn't leave in disgust over Clinton's PC BS

[tet68]

They don't like Rumsfeld, one can only imagine
what they would have made of Churchill as First Sea Lord.

[SkyPilot]

I worked in the Pentagon for two years. There are many good people there, however, Rumsfeld is doing the Lord's work.

God bless him.

[Valin]

Rumsfeld is a divisive figure in a Pentagon which is undergoing far-reaching changes in response to unconventional terrorist threats.

Someone needs to tell the perfumed princes that it's not 1972. Fighting a worldwide guerrilla war, and trying to change and update the way things are done in the armed forces Rummys got a tough row to hoe.

[MonroeDNA]

"Then Rumsfeld had his say: the article was “a world-class thumb-sucker”. "

ROTFLMAO!!!!

Go Rummy!

[EODGUY]

Speaking as a proud veteran of our military and as a fervent supporter of that military, this article reminds me of a discussion I had with a liberal acquaintance who complained that President Bush promised to rebuild the United States military that was "decimated" (he added a sarcastic tone here) by Clinton, and has yet to do anything substantive to make good on his promise.

I reminded him that liberals think throwing money at a problem will solve it. Our president has chosen to study the needs of our service men and women before he decides what is truly needed for them to remain the most highly trained/equiped/motivated military force in the world.

Anyone who has been in the military knows that money is not always spent wisely, particularly when the end of the fiscal year approaches and it becomes a "use it or lose it" situation.

Military waste is generated from the highest levels, not from the line troop level. Our Secretary of Defense is doing a terrific job maintaining control of the hierarchy of our military, some of whom are nearing retirement and hope to land another cushy job with a defense contractor. Perhaps their retirement plans cloud their objectivity.

[Mr Rogers]

Disagree. I'm involved in military testing. Rummy wants to 'streamline' the acquisition process. Under the old system, the military would determine it needs something. It would then create an ORD - Operational Requirement Document - specifying exactly what the military thought it should get from the contractor. Then contractors would build a system, and we would test it to see if it worked. Then, if it passed, it would go to the field.

Rummy's idea on streamlining - the military says it is interested in something, but we aren't sure what. The contractor builds what they can produce at a comfortable margin for scheduling and profit. Then the miliitary tests it, and then we write the ORD. That way, contractors can never fall short - the "requirement" is only made AFTER delivery. This does make things faster...

Of course, it won't have a lot of capability at the start. So we will do "spiral development". In the words of a General I know, this means we pay 100% for 50% capability, then pay 100% for another 30%, and maybe - someday - pay 100% for the remaining 20%. That way everyone is happy - the military eventually gets something useful, and the contractor makes 300%! Only the taxpayer gets screwed.

I've been working test on some products built by the nation's largest defense contractor. I give you my word - all the contractor cares about is profit margin. On one "2-year" program, we're a year behind and still haven't seen the level of performance we expected at start-up...and the item only costs twice as much as its competitor! On the other, the screw ups won't hit the field for another year - but when it does, it has a good chance of grounding perfectly good combat aircraft - a point we made in an initial review some time back.

DOT&E has already gone public with their complaint that the US Navy is fielding equipment that doesn't work, and doing it by 'dumbing down' the requirements when the article is obviously about to fail. From what I've seen, Rummy is pushing the rest of the services to follow the Navy's example. Either Rummy is clueless, or he's the contractor's best friend!

BTW - his acquisition reforms are described by one guy (a contractor!) as, "We'll give money to the contractor until they cry UNCLE, and then see if they give us anything back". Contrary to some's beliefs, there is rational opposition to the Defense Secretary.

[pray4liberty]

For every blue-rinsed matron sighing with delight at Rummy’s repartee..

Well, I think he's sweet, lovable and gorgeous to boot...and he's old enough to be my father.

[Darlin']

"irascible, intolerant and “ornery”, "trusting only a tiny circle of close advisers"

Hey, I like those traits in a Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld is streamlining and reshaping the DOD, he is stripping waste from a bureaucracy that has been notoriously bloated for years. It is inevitable those feeding at that trough will object. If, indeed, some on Capitol Hill are getting all wadded up about it I take it as a positive sign of his effectiveness. Go Rummy.

[jjm2111]

Great post.