The most dangerous man in the Bush administration.

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Rumsfeld's Design for War Criticized on the Battlefield

By BERNARD WEINRAUB with THOM SHANKER

V CORPS HEADQUARTERS, near the Kuwait-Iraq border, March 31 — Long-simmering tensions between Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Army commanders have erupted in a series of complaints from officers on the Iraqi battlefield that the Pentagon has not sent enough troops to wage the war as they want to fight it.
Here today, raw nerves were obvious as officers compared Mr. Rumsfeld to Robert S. McNamara, an architect of the Vietnam War who failed to grasp the political and military realities of Vietnam.
One colonel, who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld, was among the officers criticizing decisions to limit initial deployments of troops to the region. "He wanted to fight this war on the cheap," the colonel said. "He got what he wanted."
The angry remarks from the battlefield opened with comments made last Thursday — and widely publicized Friday — by Lt. Gen. William S. Wallace, the V Corps commander, who said the military faced the likelihood of a longer war than many strategists had anticipated.
The comments echo the tension in the bumpy relationship between Mr. Rumsfeld and Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, the Army chief of staff.

Rumsfeld does it again. After causing untold damage diplomatically with his belligerent and provocative statements and now this. Isn't it time for his retirement to the funny farm or at least he be locked up in a place where he can do no further damage? IMO he is the most dangerous individual in this Administration.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/01/international/worldspecial/01PENT.html?th

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au, I think your post covers it; Rumsfeld. If GWBush is Ceasar, Rumsfeld is Genghis Khan. c.i.

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I saw Gen. Richard Myers on the Sunday talking-heads shows repeatedly making comments like these (this one is from the Meet the Press transcript):

GEN. MYERS: Actually I think if you look at the way the war plan and his commanders, some of whom was put together by General Frankswas devised by General Franks and his component commanders.

I'm no Kremlinologist, but it sure seems like Myers was pre-emptively putting Franks' name out there to counter Seymor Hersh's charges in the New Yorker (previously cited repeatedly in the forum so I will not link it here) concerning Rumsfeld:And of course, Rumsfeld was making the rounds as well, expressing his sincere admiration for the excellent battle plans drawn up by, you guessed it, Tommy Franks.

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And this from the NYT, today:New York Times

I think we are witnessing a meltdown in progress, the size and ramifications of which remain to be seen.

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According to news reports, even with existing military levels, the Bush administration now control of all but 14% of Iraqi oil fields. Only the cities remain a serious headache.

So they may have already achieved most of their hidden agenda, although they cannot admit it to the media.

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Unless they get rid of Saddam and his regime and prove to the Iraqi people they can be trusted. The US in the long run has achieved very little.
However, is Rumsfeld the chief of evil "Satan" in this administration?

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Personally, au, I believe it would have to be smackdown for the title between Rum and Holy John Ashcroft, with the preacher winning two out of three.

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I dunno. They're all pretty bad, but Rove seems to have the great ability when it comes to steam roller tactics and execution. And he manages to keep out of the line of fire. A dangerous man, indeed.

Also, the increased references to this being a Tommy Franks war game (alluded to frequently recently by Rumsfeld, who was standing next to him) appears to me to have all the subtle, nuanced hints of "if it goes wrong, don't blame me - it was all Franks' idea."

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Everybody in this administration knows that things can change very quickly in the event this war sees too many more body bags coming home. We can see them on the defensive already, and come hell or high water, Tommy Franks is gonna get the blame, because he's being credited with the war plans - which they all claim is a good one for now. Kind of early to be playing chicken, don't you think? CYA is already in place. c.i.

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methinks Rove-Ashcroft-Rumsfeld are the hired stooges of Cheney with Bush being the "Howdy Doody" on the strings, Rice is the "Princess WinterSpring-Summer Fall" and Ari is the "pluck your magic twanger Froggy"

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dyslexia
If the truth be known George is only the court jester.

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puppet, jester, yeah i can go with either one

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The dummy and all the string pullers are equally dangerous.

We will get past this.

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I often wondered how Hitler was able to turn the most enlightened nation in Europe into the monstrosity that he did. Now I can see how easily it can be done. All you need is a lazy uniformed electorate. I can only hope we weather this storm and learn a lesson.

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au, Hitler didn't have term limits. Wink

c.i.

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c.i.
If he did do you think they would have mattered?

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We'll never know. c.i.

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c.i
In about 3 years he had taken over the entire government apparatus. Think if Bush could do the same here that would be the end of your term limits.

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Saddam is among the missing and so it would seem is Cheney. Think there is a possibility that they are hanging out together?
Embarrassed

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Now they've done it. They got Bob Schieffer all pissed off.

From his commentary on Sunday's Face The Nation:

Quote:

it bothered me when the Army's top ground commander in Iraq said the enemy was not reacting the way we expected and official spokesmen dismissed his comments as if he were a campaign operative who had gotten off message. One official spokesman even suggested the general didn't have the big picture.

Excuse me? The top ground commander didn't have the big picture?

If the administration wants to be believed, and that will be necessary to hold public support, the message it needs to stay on is to forget the spin, acknowledge mistakes, stick to the truth, then get on with winning the war.

This is a war, not a campaign, and Americans know the difference.

That's a stiff warning shot.

It may be pathetic that it takes a war for the media to start caring about Administration lying.

But there it is. Tolerance levels are within reach. If the WH loses the media, it'll have a hard post-war, and a rough '04 campaign.

Rumsfeld was further dinged on Sunday by two other prominent voices.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), a military veteran, dropped this during CNN's Late Edition:

Quote:

The only caution I would give to our civilian leadership in the Pentagon is you better listen to these guys.

I've been a little disturbed by the dismissive tone by some in the Bush administration's civilian leadership of commanders on the ground, saying:

"Well, that's a very minute view of the war. That's a simplistic view. That's an isolated view."

Well, let me remind them, that's the view of where the soldiers are being killed and where they are doing the killing. You shouldn't dismiss that view.

And former Reagan Navy Secretary James Webb, in a NYT essay, nailed Rummy for false optimism:

Quote:

this administration has allowed people like Richard Perle -- who for decades has shown a disdain for the uniformed military -- to go out and use their titles, these quasi-titles[to], in a sense, stir[] up the public optimism, that shouldn't have been there, for a very quick war.

And they never tamped him down. So they have to accept the responsibility in some sense

Rummy and Gen. Myers went on the offensive today at the briefing, which tells you the water's getting hot.

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The most dangerous man in the Bush administration.

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