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A tale of two memos Posted: November 12, 20031:00 a.m. Eastern © 2003 WorldNetDaily.com The tale of two memos illustrates much that divides Republicans from Democrats. The first memo was authored by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. It was leaked from the Pentagon, and it was characterized by its focus on the enemy that threatens the United States. Rumsfeld pushed his colleagues to focus on the long-range problem presented by the madrassas and by the need to continually push the government to innovate in the war that cannot be lost. The second memo was authored by the staff to the Senate's Democrats...

Give Donald Rumsfeld this much: The wily ex-wrestler knows that if you're having trouble against a tough opponent, it's time to try some new moves. That's the importance of Rumsfeld's leaked memo last month, in which he described the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a "long, hard slog." The defense secretary was assailed for daring to state the obvious, but the purpose of the memo was to solicit fresh ideas about how to combat a terrorist enemy, in Iraq and elsewhere. As Rumsfeld said, the United States is fighting on an inherently unfavorable battlefield when it must spend billions...

KIBITZING RUMSFELDDonald Rumsfeld’s famous leaked memo solicited out-of-the-box ideas from a small number of his closest advisors. He did not ask me, but I happen to have a lot of out-of-the-box ideas -- on many subjects. The following are five such ideas about the Iraq War and the War on Terrorism. Since he did not solicit me for them, I post them here where he will probably never see them. TWO IRAQSWatching the young toughs dancing on the burned out Humvee makes it clear that there are two Iraqs: Free Iraq (North and South) and Occupied Iraq (the Sunni Triangle)....

October 27, 2003, 8:26 a.m.Memo to RumsfeldYou are winning; now stay on the offensive. By Andrew Apostolou In his now very public private memorandum, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld asked his closest associates: "Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror?" Perhaps the best way to answer that question is from al Qaeda's perspective. On September 10, 2001, al Qaeda had operatives all over the world. Their largest ever attack was about to happen and had been planned in Afghanistan and Germany, in Malaysia and the U.S. Al Qaeda's network, fed with Gulf money, was run from...

Rumsfeld Says Memo Meant to Make People Think By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 23, 2003 - The Oct. 16 memo Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld wrote to defense leaders was aimed at getting people to think beyond day-to-day tasks and answer basic questions about the global war on terrorism and the department's roles, Rumsfeld said here Oct. 22. Rumsfeld and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers spoke about the memo following testimony at the Senate. Someone leaked the memo to USA Today, and a front-page story seemed to indicate...

Rummy's on hot seat Glum memo on war steams White House By THOMAS M. DeFRANK and RICHARD SISK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld angered the White House yesterday with a leaked memo questioning whether the U.S. was winning the war on terror. "This has put Rummy in a bad spot," one Bush administration source said. "Before this he had personality and policy problems," the source said. "Now he has a credibility problem because he's acknowledged that they've all been putting on a happy face about Iraq." It was the latest blow for the beleaguered defense...

<p>WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld (search) was "livid" Wednesday when he discovered a memo written to top aides made it onto the front page of the nation's largest circulated newspaper, a senior defense official told Fox News.</p> <p>Rumsfeld appeared calm later in the day when he and a top Pentagon official described the memo as an internal discussion paper, not an insight into the defense secretary's opinion about U.S. success in the global war on terror.</p>

Rumsfeld Memo Asks DoD Leaders to Focus on Big Questions By Jim GaramoneAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2003 – Far from being a glum assessment, a memo Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld sent to senior leaders is questions Rumsfeld believes leaders should be asking about the new security environment, Larry Di Rita, Pentagon spokesman, said here today. A story about the memo appeared in today's issue of USA Today. The story characterizes the questions Rumsfeld raised as an admission that the United States is losing the war on terror. "The secretary's not saying anything like what the...

Dear Sec. Rumsfeld, Regarding Your Memo on The War The stork brought me your memo on the Global War on Terrorism this morning. I don't know why but it seems that everyone in America received a copy of it -- either from the stork or cranked out on some illegal mimeograph machine and stuffed into the morning paper with a note attached that read "Courtesy of Bill and Hill, 2004. Smooches and Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow." I don't know why those working for you can't seem to zip it up when they get around a member of the press....

WASHINGTON — The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in the war on terrorism, has not "yet made truly bold moves" in fighting al-Qaeda and other terror groups, and is in for a "long, hard slog" in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a memo that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld sent to top-ranking Defense officials last week. Rumsfeld discussed various topics including the situation in Iraq and troop morale during a news conference at the Pentagon Thursday. Despite upbeat statements by the Bush administration, the memo to Rumsfeld's top staff reveals significant doubts about progress in the struggle against...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld questioned whether the United States was doing enough to win the war on terrorism, citing "mixed results" in the fight against al-Qaida in a pointed memo to top Pentagon officials last week.</p>

<p>The questions I posed to combatant commanders this week were: Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror? Is DoD changing fast enough to deal with the new 21st century security environment? Can a big institution change fast enough? Is the USG changing fast enough?</p>

The Meaning of the Rumsfeld Memo by Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [Posted OCtober 24, 2003] http://www.mises.org/fullstory.asp?control=1358 The Meaning of the Rumsfeld Memo Donald Rumsfeld puts on a good face for the public, but a remarkable internal memo reveals startling confusion. "We lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror," he writes. "Is our current situation such that 'the harder we work, the behinder we get'?" There you have it: a typical government program. Hundreds of billions down the drain, and nothing to show for it but confusion. Not only does Rumsfeld not know...

We've made military strides against al Qaeda. Next step: Iraqi democracy. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE Donald Rumsfeld's memo on the "Global War on Terrorism" has elicited derision and glee from many in the press and the Democratic party. The publicly upbeat, brusque secretary appears in the in-house memorandum far more pensive and tentative in his judgments about America's--specifically the Pentagon's--success in its battle against Islamic holy-warriorism. "We are having mixed results with [Osama bin Laden's] al Qaeda," Rumsfeld confesses. "Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. . . . Are we...

MEMORANDUM FOR: Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense RE: Your 16 October 2003 Memo, "Global War on Terrorism" Mr. Secretary: Though your memo was widely misunderstood and misconstrued by my colleagues in the media, it asks all the right questions. Hopefully you've already received responses from intended recipients, Messer's Meyers, Wolfowitz, Pace and Feith. Since a copy found its way to my "inbox" as I prepare to return to Iraq, herewith, responses to some of the questions you posed. You first asked, "Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror?" Short answer: Yes. The first standard for gauging success...

http://cgi.doonesbury.com/cgi-bin/view_poll.cgi In a confidential memo leaked to USA Today, Donald Rumsfeld asked four top aides to address tough questions like, "Are we winning or losing the global war on terrorism?" and to come up with new strategies. The Defense Secretary described the future of the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan as "a long, hard slog." What is revealed by the Rumsfeld memo? A- Good management. Brainstorming provocative queries, seeking candid opinions, urging within-the-box cogitation -- Rumsfeld must be watching the same war I am. Way to wade in, big guy. B- Bad faith. If even the Happy Warrior is talking...

There has been uproar over a memo that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote to four senior staff members in the Department of Defense. The memo raises questions about how effectively the department has been fighting the war on terrorism, stating, "DoD (Department of Defense) has been organized, trained and equipped to fight big armies, navies and air forces. It is not possible to change DoD fast enough to successfully fight the global war on terror; an alternative might be to try to fashion a new institution, either within DoD or elsewhere -- one that seamlessly focuses the capabilities of...

<p>The United States needs to communicate its messages more effectively and a new agency would help fight a "war of ideas" against international terrorism, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said yesterday in an interview with The Washington Times.</p> <p>Commenting on a memorandum sent to top Pentagon officials, Mr. Rumsfeld also said the Defense Department and U.S. government could be reorganized to deal more effectively with 20th-century threats.</p>

By Bobby Eberle Talon News October 24, 2003 As criticism of a memo written by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to top Pentagon officials continues, the defense secretary made an unscheduled appearance at Thursday's Pentagon briefing to address the matter first hand.As Talon News reported on Wednesday (previous story), the memo in question (see raw text), dated October 16, 2003, was addressed to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Richard Myers, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith. According to...

Oct. 24 — Welcome to Rumsfeld’s reality. It’s a brave new world in Washington now that Donald Rumsfeld has revealed the true nature of the conflict in Iraq. Americans didn’t sign on for a “long, hard slog,” as Rumsfeld put it so memorably in a memo to his top generals. RUMSFELD’S WORDS CONFIRM what critics of the war have been saying. The invasion of Iraq was a costly diversion from the broader war on terrorism, and not the central front as President Bush has claimed. Rumsfeld frets that the religious schools known as madrassas are turning out terrorists at a...