[Michael81Dus]

Yeah, it surely will take much more time - and sadly, more losses. Though, I don´t like Rumsfeld. But it´s not up to me to decide that or even to advise you.

[pierrem15]

There are some things about Rumsfeld I don't like, mainly that I think he appears (in the press) as sometimes cold towards the hardships of the troops and their families, although he seems to be quite different when he meets with them in person, as he does in his "town hall" type meetings (which I don't remember any other sec def doing).

The one dirty secret about the military transformation he's working on that I haven't seen anyone address is the fact that a leaner, fitter and more mobile figgting force will be much harder on the troops-- they will be in the field and fighting much more often. It seems to me that if that is the way we want to go, then we need to cut down on the number of married enlisted men and NCO's (and we will, whether we want to or not, under such a policy) as well as shifting many Reserve and National Guard functions back to active duty.

But I ain't sec def, and IMHO, the one we've got is doing a pretty good job with a military that was under equipped and under trained for 10 years.