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Nah, I'm pretty sure that Rummy set the pattern for downsizing the hardware.

Too bad you're mistaken.

He prefers spending the money on the golly-gee-whiz-bang computer stuff instead.

Notice that we're not fighting a large industrialized nation-state?

(I seem to recall debates about him wanting to defend satellites from terrorist attacks. It seems kind of bizarre in retrospect.)

During the late 1980s and early 1990s, we found out that communications satellites could be jammed and reconnaisance satellites at least partially blinded with techniques that Achmed the Awful could develop with modest amounts of money. It took a fair amount of money to cure these problems.

Klintoon was very heavy into the social engineering, but I still think it was Rummy who changed the hardware priorities back when he worked for Papa Bush.

The only defense-related post Rumsfeld held during the first Bush Administration was as a member of the National Defense University's Board of Visitors, not exactly a powerhouse of defense policy-making.

Well Poo, other than work for Bush, Rummy has done quite a lot as his DOD bio shows. You seem to have left out a few details (not suprisingly given your track record).

"Mr. Rumsfeld resigned from Congress in 1969 during his fourth term to join the President's Cabinet. From 1969 to 1970, he served as Director of the Office of Economic Opportunity and Assistant to the President. From 1971 to 1972, he was Counsellor to the President and Director of the Economic Stabilization Program. In 1973, he left Washington, DC, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Brussels, Belgium (1973-1974).

In August 1974, he was called back to Washington, DC, to serve as Chairman of the transition to the Presidency of Gerald R. Ford. He then became Chief of Staff of the White House and a member of the President's Cabinet (1974-1975). He served as the 13th U.S. Secretary of Defense, the youngest in the country's history (1975-1977). "

http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/secdef_bio.html

Here we go, I'm starting to find what I was looking for now.

The "two war" strategy that has underpinned U.S. military planning for the past decade has outlived its usefulness, leaving the United States increasingly vulnerable to emerging threats like ballistic missiles and cyberattack, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress.
Rumsfeld Calls U.S. Defense Strategy Out of Date
(Posted on 06/23/2001)