Can anybody defend the job that Donald Rumsfeld has done as Secretary of Defense?

Question

Has he created a leaner more agile military or has he created a bonanza for war profiteers with all the out-sourcing of basic services to Halliburton and other firms with connections?
Is this a more costly way to run a military?
With so much information classified, how can we know?
Would a return to the draft be a good idea concurrently ending outsourcing therby providing opportunities for young people in the military to acquire transferrable job skills?

Answer 1

I just saw onthe news during a speech Rummy actually had the massive brass balls to compare people who question the government with terrorists trying to weaken us from within.

He shouldn't be removed from office, he should be removed from society.

Answer 2

OK, first part; Rumsfeld probably had no basis for which to "create" a leaner more agile military (He is, after all, just a small part of the military industrial complex). DoD/Pentagon paid Rand Corp to do a study, after the U.S. Armys "Stryker" Brigade concept was designed and began to be implemented, but the study found that, while making the Army leaner and more deployable, it was not going to help Army recruiting/retention shortfalls. I don't think Rumsfeld deserves credit good or bad for that-the Army has been struggling with this issue since the AVF (all volunteer force) concept was implemented.
* Bad note; These recruiting and retention shortfalls in light of numbers of troops required for deployment obligations has created the "back door draft" (instead of drafting folks for military duty, they "stop/loss" them and recall them from in-active ready reserve (IRR)). Bad policy-will have possible blowback toward the entire Republican party for some time to come.
OK, another part of the query-privatized contracting. If Halliburton (KBR (Kellogg, Brown and Root to be exact) didn't get the contracts for services they got, someone else would have, and KBR was obviously the most capable, as they have done a good job. The information on contracting, the bids, who gets them, etc., is not classified, and a good open source of any PMC (private military corp) information is Doug Brooks PMC discussion board at [e-mail]. Go to Doug Hoosiers home page for access. These guys end up writing more about the more exotic PMC services such as those provided by BlackWater USA, Triple Canopy, etc., but they'd be happy to point you to all available PMC outsourcing facts and figures.
The third part of your query I've found in the past to be the most debatable. I'm not convinced that the military offers the average Joe adequate "transferrable" job skills. It can if they use the GI Bill or otherwise get college level educations, as the American system places more emphasis on higher education. I've gone round and round with many folks on this that support outsourcing and say it's cost effective. I've worked with a PMC and I'm still in the military. I'm trying to figure out how paying me $158,000/year is cost effective when the military pays me (danger, jump, and language pay incentives included) about $45k/year (E5 over 8 years service) to do the same exact thing. (???) Who was I to complain when I got on that private contract though?
If anything with OIF and OEF can be criticized, it's not ALL the fault of Rumsfeld and PMCs. There's plenty of folks we can assign some blame to, to include indisputably failing intelligence.
A draft would just illuminate more inequity in the system (rich folks kids would not get called up-gauranteed). A draft is not called for, would not (by itself) solve the situation, and probably would not be tolerated by the people.
Cheers

Answer 3

Mr. Rumsfeld is knowledgeable since he's been in the D.C. area since the 1960s,therefore,he knows how everything works and has become savvy. He knows,almost,when to be assertive to the point of being aggressive and when to lay low. He is trying to transform the US Military which is large into one that is similar of the Israel Armed Forces,IAF. It means he wants to make efficient and effective,but the USA has more resposibilty than Israel. Israel only defends itself and rarely helps any non-jewish state,so they are selfish. Also they receive a lot of fiduciary help from the USA. Another that will hurt Mr. Rumsfeld are the Air Force,Army,Coast Guard(yes,they are actually the oldest continuous branch),Marine Corps,and Navy,moreover,the US Military-Industrial Complex which is interwoven with Democrats and Republicans. Why? these branches never want to loose money and politicians get "donations" from the Military-Industrial or "War" Corporations such as Boeing,Northrop-Grumman,etc.

If he tries to combine the US Armed Forces just like the Canadian Combined Armed Forces,then he will make enemies from active,guard,reserve,and retired military and just about everyone from the average citizen that cares about the military or is interested to politicians.

Money and power is what works in Washington D.C. and the world. People and history only like proven winners and not those that tried.

I strongly believe that he should be the President of the United States,because he is more intelligent than Dick Cheney and George W Bush combined. The President and Vice-President are tweedle dumber and tweedle dumb. Mr Donald H Rumsfeld knows how to survive,but his Haliburton ties hurt his credibilty.

Answer 4

Were I his advocate, this is what I would argue:

The role of the SecDef is to implement the policy established by the President, not to set that policy. The SecDef advises, and the President decides. The SecDef further is more responsible for the political and international aspects of any military decision, and not personally responsible for strategic or tactical decisions. Those are ordered by the president, and implemented through the Joint Chiefs to the forces in field.

Because Rumesfeld was only responsible for implementing policy, not for setting it, he is not responsible for the bad choices made. And the choices made were implemented as best as the situation would allow, given the intelligence available at the time.

He was also only responsible for using the intelligence gathered, not for acquiring it himself, so the failures in intelligence gathering were also not his fault. Rather, he was using what was available to do his job, put a good political face on the military decisions made by Bush.

Since his only real job was political spin, and he managed to get a large portion of the world and the US to go along the effort, he accomplished that job to the best of his ability.

Note: I don't personally believe any of that. But that's what I'd argue if I had to defend the job he's done as his advocate.

Answer 5

Honestly I can't say at this point whether he's done a good job or not. I'd like to think he has made wise decisions. I'm aware that he has his critics in the military, but I'm not in a position to know how the majority of American generals view him, and to me that is the deciding factor. Perhaps with the passage of time a clearer evaluation of the job he's done can be made, but until then I don't give a damn what a bunch of armchair generals think.

Answer 6

He has been gunning for the military before his first stint as Defense Department head during the the Ford administration.

He was instrumental in maintaining the Vietnam fiasco during his time with Nixon.

He spent a short time in the Navy and seems to feel like a big fat head know it all bastard.

If it had not been for 9-11 he probably would have been forced out of office.

Answer 7

In my opinion,I do not like what he is doing and I think it about time we reduce our army personnel back to the state.I have been told that there are 130,000 army men and women in Iraq and Pakistan.American taxes payers are footing this war bill and only small groups of people profit from these 2 wars. Meanwhile,the super rich 2% do not pay his or her shares except the middle class American and you and me are not too poor to get extra help.It is costly enough to run these wars and it is the way republican runs the country.You and me will not know anything since 911 and it is very hard for every one who lives in America to earn a living.Draft should be volunteer more than force our next generation to fight. The young people I spoke to they all said'" we will fight for the war that we believe in " Now we should pay more attention to our next generation and get out of debt quick instead of dig our hole deeper and deeper.Let me know how are we going to pay for this messes and military is not the answer for youth job skills.

Answer 8

Sure. He has prosecuted two wars, and has toppled two violent, repressive governments. He has liberated over 50 million people.

There has been a loss of life on our part, but the combat deaths still total less than 3,000. We lost more than that in one day when we invaded Okinawa in WWII.

Answer 9

He is a criminal who has brokem the law violated his oath to protect and to defend the constitution and should be in jail and the president should be impeached so that the facts will come out.
Provide Jobs so the poor dont have to die for illegal unconstitutional wars Just to line the pockets of a small group of blue blooded Nazies.
Do you want the answer. to stop war DRAFT the people who make weopons . Make it illegal for them to profit from war. If they make a gun they do it at cost. with the same pay as a solider on the battle feild gets. WAR WILL STOP

Answer 10

No.

So send Americans to die in the Middle East such that the USA becomes another Hitler that has to be stopped - oy vey.