Not only are his meetings at 7, but more interesting are the manner in which they are conducted. In the first few months, the meeting included about 25 of the inner circle in OSD, but Rumsfeld found this to be too big and reduced the size to about 10-15. None of the Service Secretaries or Joint Chiefs are included. No one in uniform attends. Guidance and direction flow downwards from this group. There is no bottom up information flow and any idea not coming from the SECDEF is DOA. OSD spends all of its time reacting to the "snowflakes" that float out of the SECDEFs office. Not good.
Rumsfeld has clearly done a brilliant job on the PR front. The support that he garners from our fellow Freepers is clear evidence that he has been very effective. I doubt that these folks would hold this opinion if they were privy to the inner workings of the Pentagon. We will have to wait for the books to be written, but eventually we will discover that this guy was more like McNamara than anyone would like to think.
Good to see that there are a few others out there who have figured this out, keep up the fire.
That is why we have a president that runs the country. Rumsfeld runs DOD, the generals work for him. If Rumsfeld screws up, it will be him that hangs, not the generals.
Robert MacNamara rightfully took the fall for the Vietnam fiasco, not the generals that were yes men.
Imagine a highly politicized general officer corps (redundant, no?) that effectively serves as if appointed for life a la federal judgeships. Imagine the next Slickmeister coming in a installing a cadre of G.O.s over the course of an eight year term. Would a successive administration have to purge G.O.s? At what political cost?
Frankly, I admire the current turmoil -- the Army will emerge changed and stronger in the end. And civilian control of the military is bedrock principle of our society.
Perhaps the next Secretary of the Army will focus on the strategic purpose of the Army, not operational abilities.
Wouldn't it be unique to have a Secretary that looks at our human resources as a life-cycle model? How do we influence the next generation to enlist? How are we caring for our current stock? How have we cared for our veterans and retirees (Shouldn't this be the realm for service secretaries; should we really have to palm it off to Veteran's Affairs?).
And wouldn't it be nice to finally get out of competition with the Marine Corps for being an expeditionary force? It's hard to find common consensus across this county as to what the purpose of the Army is (vis-a-vis USMC, other services).
The nation's defense elites wonder: what is the purpose of an Army? We need a Secretary that can tell them, tell us, and tell Americans what this Army is, and why it endures as the nation endures.
Imagine what the last two years would have been like if White was SecDef, and Rumsfeld was SecArmy...
On 4/16/03 [and several days thereafter], CSPAN aired a documentary Inside the Pentagon which is still available on streaming video [1 1/2 hours]. The 7:00AM meeting is attended by the Joint Chief and several other military officers. Rumsfeld meets several times a day with various military and civilian officials.