GW, Cheney, Rumsfeld.Ashcroft, Wolfowitz were never in Service-did that make any difference in our strategies?

Question

Or did they still have sufficient insight giving the major orders.

Answer 1

They are self serving rattlesnakes. The great FDR had polio by the way.
ps I am a Brit.

Answer 2

Of course, I'm not an authority on military strategy, so the following is strictly my opinion (based on my own study of history and war).

But first, a point of clarification:
Donald Rumsfeld was in the Navy, as a pilot.
As for President Bush serving...well, THAT is a punchline to some lame joke played upon the American people.

Anyway - my opinion is that while the Bush Administration did have some very good military advice, the ultimate choices were poor and possibly due to the inexperience of having never smelled the odor of death in a battlefield.

A final thought or two:

Although you did not mention him, Colin Powell did serve...and he was apparently AGAINST the Iraq invasion, as he understood what the USA was up against, based on his experience in the Gulf War.
Obviously, his "insight" didn't mean much to the Bush Administration.

I find it highly ironic that Cheney (who applied for and received five draft deferments) said this about the Vietnam war:
"I had other priorities in the '60s than military service."

Answer 3

Yet another liberal who fails to READ.

GW (Bush?) was a pilot in the Air National Guard during Vietnam. Rumsfeld was a Navy pilot for 3 years before going into business and getting involved in the government. He was also Defense Secretary TWICE-once in the Ford Administration and again for Bush. Ashcroft was not in service, and has not been in the administration since 2003, in case you did not know. Wolfowitz also made his living in the Pentagon. Cheney was Defense Secretary under 41, and he won the war in Panama, oversaw the military response when the Berlin Wall came down, and supervised Powell and Schwarzkopf during the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

These are precisely the people we need making our strategies.

Answer 4

Rumsfield never served ??

Then explain why he is getting a military retirement check every month as a retired Naval Capt ?

Naval Capt = 0-6

Rumsfield retired from the Navy in 1989.

People really should do more research before posting questions.

Answer 5

Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were never in uniform either. And they led us through two World Wars in the 20th Century. I served under seven commanders-in-chief. All had served in uniform. Five in a row had been Navy officers. Not one of those five had any great appreciation of the application of sea power with the exception of John Fitzgerald Kennedy during the Naval Quarantine during the Cuban Missile Crisis. And the idea for that quarantine came from Adlai Stevenson.

Answer 6

How about this: FDR, Henry Wallace, Henry Stimson, Frank Knox, Cordell Hull.

Do those names sound familiar? They should; it is the president, vice-president, secretary of the Army, secretary of the Navy, and secretary of state at the time the United States entered the Second World War. Only Knox and Hull had ever served in the military, as volunteers in Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

BTW. What would John Ashcroft, former attorney-general, have to do with military issues?

Answer 7

President Bush had extensive military experience guarding Alabama during the Vietnam War. He was such an effective covert operator, that no one can even remember seeing him.

Answer 8

Bush was in the Air National Guard

Clinton never served. Neither did FDR

Is service in the military now a prerequisite for being President?

Answer 9

Other answerers have easily proved that it doesn't matter whether a president was in the service or not.

They all seem to end up rattling the sabres.

Answer 10

It make you wonder, doesn't it? The way I see it, someone couldn't teach Math if they never studied math before. So what is the difference?

Seriously, these men studied law and business. War is a whole nother ball game.