Rumsfeld Gone
Reflecting on the Rumsfeld Era
By D.W.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld resigned after six years at the helm. As President Bush indicated, his resignation was going to happen after the midterm elections regardless of the political outcome. For many on both sides of the political spectrum it was about time for him to go. He has always been a controversial figure with his blunt manner of speaking and a macho persona that has always annoyed liberals.

However, he has also earned the angst and disapproval of many conservatives during the last few years.

The Iraq war however has caused him the most problems and he is being portrayed as the Robert S. McNamara of this conflict. This historical parallel is not without basis in reality and he certainly does deserve blame for a number of the problems in the post war Iraq campaign.
 

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It is now clear that the conduct of the war after the invasion was never really thought out and only on the fly after Saddam’s regime had fell. The Coalition Provisional Authority was a mess and it was never really designed and resourced by the Department of Defense.

Donald Rumsfeld also receives much of the criticism for Abu Gharib scandal and the consternation over the detentions at Guantanamo Bay Cuba. We must remember that Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon during the 9/11 attack and experienced the carnage himself. It is safe to say that he took the attacks and the Global War on Terrorism very personally and this is certainly reflected in his leadership of the war and his attitude towards enemy combatants.

Secretary Rumsfeld also deserves part of the blame for allowing the administration to fall under the spell of Ahmed Chalabi, the brilliant and manipulative Iraqi-dissident huckster. Chalabi managed to con much of the administration and feed them plenty of lies and misinformation into the intelligence on Iraq for his own benefit. He also conned the administration into giving him a seat at the Iraqi table of power which he didn’t merit.

I remember when Rumsfeld took over in 2001; there was a lot of talk about cutting the Army force structure down by two divisions. Apparently, Rumsfeld and company didn’t think that conventional ground forces were very relevant in a pre 9/11 world. He also didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about preparing for peacekeeping operations and counter-insurgency either. Instead, Rumsfeld leaned towards a stronger, more high tech Air Force and Navy to combat a Chinese threat with precision weapons in a lightening war.

After 9/11 happened, he seemed to change his mind somewhat but not enough to prepare the military for long protracted counter-insurgency conflicts.

Rumsfeld does deserve credit for his numerous achievements as the Secretary of Defense which was not visible to many people because they were overshadowed by the war.

He did help push the U.S. military out of the Cold War where they trained to fight a Soviet threat throughout the 90’s. He was great proponent of the Special Forces from early on and his efforts have helped to expand that capability to a large degree.

He also pulled the Pentagon out of the industrial age and into the information age. This reform was necessary, vital, and long overdue. The reforms extended from the upgrade of information systems as simple as a high tech ID card to the overhaul of the personnel system. He also revamped the military’s cumbersome and painfully slow acquisition system and got needed equipment to the troops in a timely manner.

However, the Department of Defense is a lot like other large bureaucratic agencies that are resistant to change. These institutional structures and cultures are much like dinosaurs that need a big comet to kill them off.

Add to this the fact that the DOD is also one of the largest consumers in the world with a lot of powerful and politically connected suppliers. Only a strong and forceful leader like Rumsfeld could be a comet and break down the department’s dinosaurs. In this respect, Rumsfeld was the right man for the job and he did have a previous tour as Secretary to learn from.

And like McNamara, Rumsfeld is a great CEO and made many of the Defense Department’s systems better and more efficient. Without Vietnam, McNamara would probably have been held in high regard for his efforts as Secretary of Defense. As with Rumsfeld, if it weren’t for Iraq he might have been viewed as one of the best Secretary’s of Defense. However, neither one of these conceptual men could seem to get their heads around the low tech and all too pervasive guerrilla war.

History will not likely prove to be kind towards Donald Rumsfeld and his accomplishments will probably be overshadowed by his failures. Aside from being both the oldest and youngest man to serve as Secretary of Defense, his will be a legacy inalterably tied to Iraq. His brilliant victory in Afghanistan and the swift defeat of Saddam during the invasion will likely be forgotten by the liberal writer’s history of the textbooks.

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