David Corn: Why the Rumsfeld Memo Matters

[Wetzelbill]

Why the Rumsfeld Memo Matters
by David Corn

Thanks to USA Today, the public now knows some of what Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld really thinks of the war of terrorism. And thanks to Rumsfeld, the public knows that Bush is spinning when he discusses the war on terrorism.

The newspaper obtained an October 16, 2003, memo Rumsfeld wrote to four senior aides, in which he asked, "Are we winning or losing the Global War on Terror?" Rumsfeld also noted, "We are having mixed results with Al Qaida." The much-discussed memo was clearly intended to goose his top people--General Richard Myers, General Peter Pace, Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith--to think boldly and imaginatively about the war at hand. But Rumsfeld observed, "Today, we lack the metrics to know if we are winning or losing the global war on terror." He wondered whether more terrorists are being produced on a daily basis than the number of terrorists being captured, killed, deterred or dissuaded by U.S. actions.

If Rumsfeld says there is no way to measure success or defeat in the campaign against terrorism, how can George W. Bush declare that he is winning the war? Yet while speaking on September 12 at Fort Stewart in Georgia, before soldiers and families of the Third Infantry Division, Bush said, "We're rolling back the terrorist threat, not on the fringes of its influence but at the heart of its power."

As Rumsfeld might put it, according to what metrics, Mr. President?

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1023-16.htm

[roguevalley]

1. David Corn is amazing. And he's also right.

Rumsfield is history. Its only a matter of time. Can
you imagine what will happen if someone offs about 50
of our guys in one day now that everyone knows the
idiot and his savants don't have a clue?

Pray it never happens.

[Cha]

2. David Corn knows his stuff. I saw him on C-span

the other morning and he was talking about his book "The Lies Of gwbush" and his website http://www.bushlies.com and he was killer!

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Oh it matters

and boykin shoudl be fired

[LiviaOlivia]

4. I may be wrong, but

I took the meaning of this so-called leak as a
shot across the bow of the CIA, the military and
all civil servants. Warlord Rumsfeld wants to
dismantle exsisting federal government structures
under the guise of 9/11 and the threat of terrorism.
The so-called lack of metrics to gauge the successes
or failings on the war terrorism is being laid at the
feet of military and federal employees by this person
and other members of this gang.
Rumsfeld would never blame BushCo for anything because
that would mean taking blame himself.

[Cha]

5. Welcome to DU, Livia!

:toast:

[realFedUp]

6. Welcome to DU

and good post.

[DrBB]

7. I agree

I think it's a deliberate leak by Rummy and I think the Flying Chimp is PO'd--if he really is--only because the leak represents Rummy acting on his own at the cost of The Team. I think the memo serves to put him in the light of Wise And Wide-Thinking Leader, showing he's got a handle on the real situation, and basically justifying him over against the decision to move control of Iraq (supposedly) to the incompetent (IMO, and I suspect Rummy's as well) Condi.

The basic thrust of the thing is to justify Rummy glomming up more power and authority to Defense. I think the posture that somehow reveals genuine doubts and misgivings within the *admin is so much hooey. A useful rhetorical pose, perhaps, but if you actually read the thing there isn't much there that looks like a challenge to the prevailing groupthink. Just look at the distribution list: 2 pet generals plus Wolfie and Feith--chief architects of the Iraq adventure. Feith is even profiting from it on the side, with his little consulting group offering to shepherd American corporations to juicy contracts over there. Oh, we'll get some real genuine outta-the-box thinking from them, you betcha.

[bemildred]

8. I agree.

The use of MBA-speak in this way is telling.

Complaining about the lack of a metric implies that it makes
sense to manage the problem via some metric, i.e. that a metric
to measure progress on TWAT make sense and its lack is an
oversight or someone's failure.

Of course it is ludicrous, but that doesn't matter.

Soon we will hear about the failure to get "buy-in" from
all the relevant parties.