Rumsfeld Ponders War Progress in Memo -Report

[Khephra]

Rumsfeld Ponders War Progress in Memo -Report

Wed October 22, 2003 02:50 AM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has no yardstick for measuring progress in its war on terrorism and is in for a long stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld wrote in a memo last week to senior staff officials, USA Today reported on Wednesday.

Sharply diverging from upbeat public comments, Rumsfeld writes that it is not possible to transform the Pentagon quickly enough to effectively fight the anti-terror war and that a new institution might be necessary to do that, the newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the Oct. 16 memo suggests that significant work remains to be done, raises a number of probing questions and offers few detailed proposals.

"Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terrorism?" Rumsfeld asks in the memo as quoted by the newspaper.

He cites "mixed results" against al Qaeda, "reasonable progress tracking down top Iraqis" and "somewhat slower progress" in apprehending Taliban leaders, the report said.

MORE............

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3662492

[shockingelk]

1. here's the memo

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/executive/rumsfeld-memo.htm

...

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?

DoD 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 several departments and agencies on this key problem

...

Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions.

Do we need a new organization?

How do we stop those who are financing the radical madrassa schools?

Is our current situation such that "the harder we work, the behinder we get"?

It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.



Does CIA need a new finding?

[shockingelk]

2. "Does CIA need a new finding?"

What the heck does that mean? A new finding that if we don't attack Syria now, we're domed? That Kay needs to find another vial?

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Is Rummy and Company loosing control and

need something like a Team B or OSP now formalized to continue
their war uninpeded by Congresional oversight?

And no folks this cannot be separated from Boyken... if they have
a separate organization they can keep boyken, now as a civie

[JeebusH]

4. Rumsfeld Ponders War Progress ... here's a hint Rummy ...

its going badly!!!

[Le Taz Hot]

5. Kick

:Kick: Important story. Perhaps they'll sandwich this in somewhere between Kobe and the guy who jumped into Niagra Falls. :eyes:

[dbt]

6. War going badly, Rummy?

Might wanta look in the mirror!

:grr:
dbt
(Knowing full well that vampires have no reflections...)

[qanda]

7. Topic on C-SPAN this morning

Someone called in and said Rumsfeld is losing his mind and needs to step down.

[leetrisck]

14. Heard it on C-Span also and was surprised

that the leak was with USA Today - not Washington or New York. Was amazing to hear the Repukes disagree with Rummy's memo - suppose because they got used to believing every word he says when he's out there every day lying to us. I'm betting Rummy leaked it but don't know why. He prefers to do his own leaks.

[trapper914]

20. Could it be...

...he was pissed about the reorganization of the U.S. efforts in Iraq with Condi in charge, of which he was notified after the fact? How much did that sting, Rummy?

[snippy]

29. That was implied by several people on CNBC.

They also said that the DOD had been leaking all day that Rummy leaked the memo. Brian Williams also said that there were "a couple of journalists" walking around Washington who knew the motives of whoever leaked the memo.

[radfringe]

40. :sigh: children are still fighting

the leaked memo looks like Rummy is cutting off his nose to spite his face

the memo basically gives the media a framework of questions or a "roadmap" for covering how well Condi is handling things

the worse things get in Iraq, the worse it makes Condi look and that will reflect back on the whistleass

I keep flashing on an image of Condi and Rummy standing in opposite corners of a room sticking their tongues out at each other...

....nyah, nyah, nyah I'm gonna tell on you

[teryang]

8. Another new institution?

This is the response of totalitarians when institutions refuse to give up their traditional views and methods. Now the organization that won WWII and the cold war isn't good enough.

Hitler needed Himmler to undermine more traditionally minded professional leadership in the Wehrmacht. The SS was created to undermine their authority and underwent constant expansion until the ultimate military defeat. Interestingly enough, the German Army was the only significant threat to Hitler's totalitarian rule, and that was weak and half hearted because of strongly ingrained martial values of loyalty and obedience.

If you think this is far fetched, Rumsfeld is the nominally the authority behind Gitmo which has a political significance similar to Dachau as a prototype concentration camp. Although there are substantial differences in orientation, the Gitmo detention camp represents the legal limbo that developed over a period of time in eastern and central europe during the interwar years that allowed the development of such camps for non-persons. Rumdum and Ashcroft reduced this illegal evolution to a matter of months.

[shockingelk]

9. interesting observations

and a :kick:

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. The Nazis also decided that they could win a two-front war by attacking...

...the USSR in 1941 when they were still fighting the Allies in the west, principally the UK along with the U. S. Hitler made the decision to go to war against the USSR against the advice of his intelligence organization, and without any clear idea as to the real military strength and industrial capabilities of the USSR. Sound familiar?

As the German Army advanced into the USSR, they were initially met by local populations all too happy to be rid of the Soviets. Had the Germans used this to their advantage by making allies of these people, WWII on the Eastern Front may have had a much different outcome. But no, the Nazis unleashed the death squads and treated the local populations as "untermensch", basically people they believed to be subhuman. And the massive Nazi death camp system, already operating at a lower level of effort, began their work in earnest in 1942. That led to the Soviet resistance groups that caused the Germans to have to drain the front lines to protect assets behind the lines, principally railroad lines and supply depots. Does any of this sound familiar in the way we are treating both the Afghan and Iraqi people?

By attempting to keep Afghanistan under control with skeleton forces and using the bulk of the available remaining military forces in Iraq, the Bushies have also created a second front in addition to the so-called War against Terror. And as you described so well in your post, the Bushies have also established a system to eliminate those people determined to be "untermensch". How many other camps will be used in a similiar manner? How many people will simply be made to "disappear"? When will they start on political opponents here in America?

And if the NeoCons have their way, the U. S. military will also be actively engaged in Syria as well as Iran. Argentina and North Korea will be allowed to simmer on a back burner for the time being. And let's not forget the troops our fearless leaders have sent into Bolivia, Columbia, the Philippines, Nepal, and 50-60 other countries around the world.

[ewagner]

17. Your assessment of history is good

I'm not sure that Rummy or his neo-con warriors have ever studied history or have even the most rudimentary knowlegde of it. If they try to set up an organization resembling the old Nazi SS, it will be by sheer accident and not design.

It is not hard to read between the lines though....I'm sure the restructuring Rummy is talking about is something very similar to this...

[eileen_d]

10. Demand Rumsfeld's resignation!

I have Working Assets Long Distance and got this notification via e-mail yesterday:

Call on President Bush at 202/456-1414 to ask for Donald Rumsfeld's resignation.

If you're a WALD customer you can also send a CitizenLetter for a fee: http://www.workingassets.com/customerservice/orderlet1.cfm

MoveOn.org has a similar petition, which I signed recently:
http://www.moveon.org/firerumsfeld/

[snippy]

11. Who could have imagined that the number of terrorists might increase.

From the memo:

Today, we lack metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror. Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?

Does the US need to fashion a broad, integrated plan to stop the next generation of terrorists? The US is putting relatively little effort into a long-range plan, but we are putting a great deal of effort into trying to stop terrorists. The cost-benefit ratio is against us! Our cost is billions against the terrorists' costs of millions.

. . .

Is our current situation such that "the harder we work, the behinder we get"?

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/executive/rumsfeld-memo.htm

So, we lack a plan to decrease the number of terrorists other than killing them. But can the US kill terrorists as fast as the US policies create more terrorists?

I am neither shocked nor awed that the Bush administration has no plan other than killing.

[VolcanoJen]

13. Kick!

:dem:

[ewagner]

15. This is REALLY BIG STUFF !!

For the cock-sure Secretary of Defense to question whether we are making progress in the so-called War On Terror is devastating!

It is an admission that he doesn't have a clue as to what we are doing. He doesn't have a clue about strategy. This should shake the confidence of even the most rabid supporter of the war on terror.

About the leak itself? It seems unlikely to me that Rummy would leak it himself. It undermines everything he and the administration have been saying for the past two years (at least since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan). I've got to believe this is some kind of internal sabatogue....somebody has had enough...

[Roon]

16. My theory on this...

The administration KNOWS there is going to be another terrorist attack soon and they are powerless to stop it. They have no idea what is going to happen and are covering their asses now before it happens.

Also, that recent threat from Bin Laden...

Hate to sound so pessimistic, but it really gives me the creeps that Rummy is saying these things..I think something is up..

[lightbulb]

18. Why in the world would they want to stop it?

Terrorist attacks are like steroids for Bush's approval ratings. This graph says it all:

http://methods.fullerton.edu/bush_approval_ratings.html

Do we give this admin enough moral credit to think they wouldn't welcome another attack? They're all about shock and awe, and they have no qualms with using mass murder as a political tool, as their wanton bombing of Iraqi civilians has recently emphasized.

[Coventina]

19. This looks to me as if

there may be outright war between the admin (Rummy) and the Pentagon.

I can't imagine that anyone at the Pentagon would be pleased by any of this.

[Malva Zebrina]

21. A little confused I would say

this is like rowing against the tide--and Rummy is doing the rowing. This is amusing to me. Petulant Rummy--he is about to be "let go" I think and I think he senses that and is releaseing these leaks in order to do as much damage as he can before he leaves. Few will take note though--what needs to be done to fix the broken system in American is to attack George Bush--specifically force him to be responsible for all the death and destruction his imcompetency has caused. That is not an easy thing to do, but if the media, and I may add, the Democratic party, had any sense that the country is becoming the fourth Reich, they would step up to the plate and batter Bush at every opportunity. Then the ordinary American, mega consumer, might, (and I say might hopefully), develop a sense of conscience, morals and ethics and see that this pathetic little man with a famous name, who was not legally elected but who forced his presidency upon us through the corrupted court, and who is bloviating and bullying his way around the world, is a total ignoramus and not worhty of any title -- be it Commander in Chief, President or even "Mr." Bush is the one whose policies need to be attacked=he is responsibel for everything--for murdering thousands and for the deaths of US troops who were sent out to die for his greed and believed they were sent out to defend "freedom"=how about it Rummy? Ready to sink Bush's cardboard ship?

[Unknown Known]

22. I think this is Rummy getting back at bush giving Condi Iraq control

I do believe Rummy leaked this himself and it's setting Condi & bush up for a fall. If anything happens - Rummy can say "I told you so" and I'm almost certain now that something is going to happen.

[berry]

34. One of the "advantages" (for BushCo*) of having Condi in control of the

Iraq reconstruction planning (and funds) is that the NSC is part of the Executive Branch and therefore (they seem to have been thinking) not oversee-able by Congress. Congress can make Rummy testify, but they can't get Condi. This was mentioned by several Congress people in hearings about the $87 billion. Some seemed to think that the reorganization was in piqued response to the Congressional balking over handing over the funding without asking hard questions. (Seems logical--though the move could have multiple motivations...)

But maybe Rummy really was stung by this--and figures the desired secrecy and UNaccountability could have been achieved by creating this new organization he is hinting at? We know Rummy was having problems with his reform plans for the Pentagon pre-9-11. Maybe he's finding resistance in the Pentagon again (after a period of acquiescence during the post-9-11 "patriotism"). This idea of a separate organization (maybe even a private, outsourced one?) may well have been in his mind from long ago--like PNAC. Or, the PNAC people may be worried about getting marginalized before they wreak all the havoc they have planned, and they are trying to get dug in before they lose ground.

I much appreciated the posts comparing this to Nazi Germany (in the kind of detail that is totally convincing!). I tend to agree that Rummy may not know who he's following in the footsteps of, but he is said to be a vicious bureaucratic infighter and knows how to work the system--or maybe how to change it to his liking (i.e., to increase his own and PNAC's power). I wouldn't put it past him to have leaked this himself--for some crazy-like-a-fox reason.

[diamond14]

23. could this leak be another CIA bombshell????

from rummy's memo

"Does CIA need a new finding?"

[MGKrebs]

24. Wow.

"Are we capturing, killing or deterring and dissuading more terrorists every day than the madrassas and the radical clerics are recruiting, training and deploying against us?"

This is what anti- war folks were saying before we even went to war.

It seems that many of these hawks think of terrorists as criminals who are in it for the money, and can be dissuaded by serious punishment. But many of us knew that wasn't going to be the case. those people believe in what they are doing- to the point of suicide- and serious punishment will just piss them off even more.

Is Rummy seeing the light?

Also, my take on the new "finding": I think that often means "assasination". Perhaps widening the scope of eligible targets.

[ewagner]

25. We're winning the war against Terror!

How many times does Bush* start or end speeches with that line?

This is a direct contridiction......

It undermines the shrub more than anything else I've seen.

[dArKeR]

26. CBS report - Please look at the 2nd pic on this report. What kind of sign

is that in the background? It looks new, got to be. Is it an advertisement or town directions or a 'Buy Halliburton Soft Drinks'?

'Long, Hard Slog' In Iraq
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/02/24/iraq/main541815.shtml

[frank frankly]

27. drip, drip, drip

the CIA is dropping these neo-cons

[JPace]

28. It is like trying to kill fleas with hand grenades....

yes you will get some, but its expensive,
inefficient, messy, a waste of resources,
there is a lot of collateral damage, the
whole process pisses off all the neighbors
and most of the fleas are going to survive
and multiply.

So much for the AWOL regimes "war on terror".

[PatrickS]

30. kick

This is a big story!

[onager]

31. Minor Historical Quibble...

M-L-D wrote: "...the USSR in 1941 when they were still fighting the Allies in the west, principally the UK along with the U. S."

Minor quibble: Hitler invaded Russia in June 1941, 6 months before the U.S. entered the war.

The point that Hitler was fighting a multi-front war in 1941 is still true. The air war against Britain continued, along with the fighting in North Africa. Earlier in 1941 Hitler had invaded Greece and Yugoslavia. (The latter causing possibly fatal delays in the Russian campaign by tying up German forces for several weeks in the early spring.)

The overall comparison is interesting. Something that really "sounds familiar" to me is Hitler's overweening hubris, which caused him to declare war on the U.S. right after Pearl Harbor. There was no real need for him to do that, just as there was no real need for us to send an army to Iraq.

The U.S. was attacked by Japan, and quite a few American isolationists wanted the U.S. to only fight a Pacific war and leave Europe alone.

There's not much doubt FDR would have gone after Hitler sooner or later. But Hitler might have bought enough time to finish off Russia by refusing to declare war on the U.S. By "finish off," I don't necessarily mean a clear military victory but a negotiated peace settlement with Stalin--a nightmare that rightly haunted the Allies until very nearly the end of the war.

[Beetwasher]

32. Neutralizing Rumsfeld

Washington is leak crazy I tells ya! First (sort of) we have the leak by high officials in the admin. that Valerie Plame was a covert CIA operative doing important work that now, thanks to them, is all comprised along w/ the nat'l security of this country as an added "benefit" of that brilliant move. That was a big no no.

As a matter of fact, the Chimp was so mad about it and leaks in general, that he had a major hissy fit in which he pounded his fist very commander in chief like fer sure! And demanded an end to the leaks! Yay! We know this cuz it was leaked

Now, yet another leak, but this one's a doozy! It seems Rummy might be drinking heavily, because his internal defense department memos (hmm, I wonder what the security clearance is on something like that? Do you think they let the janitor peek at those?) seem to be completely out of whack with the propoganda he spews to reporters! No, really, it seems he doesn't truly believe his own bullshit and harbours doubts about the admins. omnipotence!

I think I hear someone calling for the little dutch boy w/ the pudgy fingers...

These people cannot be trusted w/ the security of our country. National security secrets are being leaked all over the place and the Mayberry Machiavelli's obviously can't control it or don't want to.

But the BIG question is, is this part of something bigger, such as an attempt by the CIA to neutralize yet another key player?

Systematically Neutralizing Key Players:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=451343

[truthisfreedom]

33. hmm. seems like he may be coming to his senses.

whoever leaked that memo should be given a medal.

[Dr Fate]

35. "Mission Accomplished" indeed n/t

n/t

[cliss]

36. wow. Awesome posts.

The longer I stay here, the more impressed I am.

I've read a lot of different interpretations of this leak. Did Rummy do it intentionally? If not, who did it? What does it mean? Is someone trying to stop them from attacking Syria or Iran?

My take is: one of these "reads" is probably going to be the right one. We should know within a couple of weeks. I'm hoping it's the one where he and Conda-lizard are duking it out, in public and in private.

Wouldn't it be IRONIC if their nemesis, the one thing that could destroy them, is themselves. How righteous. It does seem to be going that way, doesn't it?

[roguevalley]

37. I think Rummy is out to destroy the Pentagon

No one in the admin likes State and would love to
destroy it. You don't really need a Pentagon in a
dictatorship.

He's out to kill the Pentagon.

[Nottingham]

38. This is looking like another VIETNAM

:bounce:

[BonjourUSA]

39. who cannot dominate the events pretends to organize them

What is he preparing ? This "leak" troubles me.