Posted on 03/13/2003 6:31:30 AM PST by TADSLOS
Rumsfeld is known for steely intellect, writes David Rennie in Washington
The stir caused by Donald Rumsfeld when he said Britain might not join the United States in a war with Iraq is far from his first brush with controversy.
In an administration marked by tight control of its media message, the US defence secretary has achieved star status with his unusual candour and willingness to speak his thoughts aloud.
Mr Rumsfeld often plays that candour for laughs, turning his Pentagon briefings into cult viewing, thanks to his frank refusal to answer sensitive questions, his whimsically archaic language, and the glee with which he skewers reporters who cannot provide chapter and verse to back up their questions.
Asked how close America was to catching Osama bin Laden, Mr Rumsfeld once answered: "It's kind of like running round the barnyard chasing a chicken. Until you get it, you don't have it."
Challenged on the treatment of detainees in the war on terror, Mr Rumsfeld declined to be bogged down in talk of treaties and rights.
"Will they be restrained in a way so that they are less likely to be able to kill an American soldier? You bet. It is inhumane to do that? No. Would it be stupid to do anything else? Yes."
Mr Rumsfeld, 70, is on his second tour of duty as defence secretary - his first term in the office began in 1975, making him both the youngest and the oldest man ever to hold the post.
In business and government, he has long been known for his steely intellect, and at times brutal honesty. That habit of musing aloud has landed him in trouble at times. His defenders would say it is not always his fault.
Mr Rumsfeld launched an anguished protest at British reporting last Christmas, when he was widely said to have warned North Korea that the American military was not afraid of fighting a war with them, in addition to with Iraq.
Mr Rumsfeld noted he had merely been responding to a reporter's question, and had offered a statement of standing US policy to prepare for war on two fronts at any time.
"How in the world can I come down here, get asked an intelligent question, a perfectly responsible question, give a perfectly responsible answer, if that's what's going to happen?" he asked the Pentagon press corps a few days later.
In January Mr Rumsfeld was asked about calls from anti-war Democrats that conscription should be reintroduced, so that the children of the elite would face battle alongside working-class soldiers.
But huge numbers of people were able to dodge the draft in the Vietnam era, Mr Rumsfeld recalled. Those who were "sucked into the intake" served such short terms that their training was wasted, and they left, "adding no value, really, to the United States armed services over any sustained period".
Democrats pounced, saying drafted veterans had been called worthless. A weary Mr Rumsfeld was soon forced to apologise.
Not every example of blunt speech is a misunderstanding. When Mr Rumsfeld dismissed France and Germany as "old Europe", in January, he was taking a policy stance, as he mused aloud on the future of Nato, and the promise of new alliances with eastern European nations.
Such language at times dismays even allies. Sir Christopher Meyer, the outgoing British ambassador to Washington, last month took the rare step of attacking Mr Rumsfeld in public, describing his comments as "unnecessarily abrasive for a European audience".
Out with the old, in with then new. Go get 'em Rummy!
Europe: unnecessarily thin-skinned for the truth.
Language of "diplomacy" - lies.
Language of "diplomacy" - lies.
Translation of article..."Rumsfeld should learn to lie"
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