Rumsfeld's war-on-terror memo

http://www.dod.mil/news/dodnews.html ^ | 10-16-03 | Rumsfeld

[OXENinFLA]

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?

[OXENinFLA]

Sorry, that was not my intention.

[txrangerette]

No quotes were needed - you used
his memo to buttress YOUR words
that the current war is phoney &
should be stopped. As if Rummy's
memo portrayed what you claim on
the current war. I wasn't born
yesterday. What you did was real
obvious.

That's your right, of course.

But if you trust him, why not let
him be charged to use accurate
words to portray the WOT.

He doesn't think it's phoney.

He wants to make it better.

[nathanbedford]

Can you imagine if anyone in the Clinton administration had had the gumption to question the administration’s assumptions as fearlessly as this memorandum does? Clearly, America would be in a safer, securer place today.

As Churchill said after El Alemain, “ This is not the end, nor even the beginning of the end but it is at least the end of the beginning.” And so it is time after astonishing victories in Afghanistan and Irak and immunity at home since 9/11 to consider where we are today, now that America has so dramatically changed the rules of the game.

Under Clinton, terrorist acts (except those of domestic terrorists or religious sects) were ignored if possible in a public relations sense. Under Bush, terrorist’s acts are relentlessly pursued and killed or captured.

Under Clinton, terrorist acts were treated, if possible, only as an occasion for indignation and threats. Bush wages war.

Under Clinton, when not possible to contain public reaction with rhetoric, terrorists were pursued half-heartedly, and then only as criminals. Bush wages war and kills terrorists or treats those captured as war criminals.

Under Clinton, nation states which nurtured terrorists were signalled by Clinton’s fecklessn ess after every assault that there was no forfeit to be paid for for such behavior. Under Bush, the world knows the price to be paid for open support of terrorists: Regime change.

Under Clinton, nations such as Sudan, which offered cooperation against terrorists, were spurned. Bush has mobilized the whole world in the war against terrorism.

Under Clinton, terrorists were able to establish an elaborate network of cells and sophisticated money raising and laundering activities. Bush has virtually bankrupted Al Quaida.

Under Clinton, recruiting was permitted to proceed unobserved and unopposed. Bush’s Secretary of defence is asking what no Clinton appointee ever considered, how can we neutralize Madrasses?

Under Clinton, in sum, acts of war were ignored, diminished, defined away as crimes or treated only rhetorically. Bush is waging almost total war.

It is well that Rumsfeld asks for a rigorous assessment at the end of the beginning. He is aware he is fighting an asymmetrical war and wants to be sure we can afford to pay billions to defeat an enemy who spends only millions. He wants to be sure his kill ratio is favourable enough to attrite the enemy at a cost the public will accept. The lessons of Vietnam, clearly, have not been lost on him. Is our intelligence up to the task?

It our job to force the evaluation to be made in the context of the failures of the Clinton era, and not against an impossible standard of perfection drawn by the left which no one could meet.

[ought-six]

I continue to be of the opinion that Bill Clinton was the greatest disaster ever to befall our republic.

[hchutch]

Seems time... don't forget to ping Miss Marple.

[LibertyAndJusticeForAll]

TO: Donald Rumsfeld
FROM: Most American Citizens
SUBJECT: Global War on Terrorism

Try truly protecting our nation's borders; they are wide-open for any terrorist to waltz across.

Thanks

[CMAC51]

Perhaps, but on the other hand maybe by dragging us down so far he did us a favor. When you hit bottom, you can either lay there in the muck or get up and start climbing in the right direction. I firmly believe our current leadership is heading in the right direction.

[hchutch]

Memo

To: Secretary Rumsfeld

From: hchutch

Subject: Ideas

1. Perhaps it's time to stop being so darn nice. After Pearl Harbor, we went pretty darn medieval on a bunch of these folks. Remember what LeMay and Sir Arthur Harris did to the Axis? Might be worth a leak saying we are thinking about things along that line...

2. Perhaps we need to pick up a few allies. I'm telling you, State did us NO favors by blacklisting the AUC. It would be nice to have a solid force of 11,000 fighters who could get things that need doing done - and provide plausible deniability. So they play a little rough with FARC, big deal. FARC's a terrorist group.

3. As inspired from the previous point, we ought to see if we can't duplicate groups like "Los Pepes" (The People Persecuted by Pable Escobar). Might be very useful in certain circumstances - like the radical madrassas.

4. We'll have to do something about what Bill Gertz reported in today's Washington Times about the Saudis and the Pakistanis. If the Saudis get nukes, things could get interesting.

5. Maybe we need to do something about Pakistan's nukes...

r/s

hchutch

[TADSLOS]

Do you just love Rummy or what?

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?

No, we are not. Madarasses are the seedbed, the Koran is the fertilizer. Destroy one and the other is benign. The Koran is an idea wrapped in text - impossible to completely destroy. Madrasses are institions that can be eliminated or, at least, made impotent. They should be considered legitimate military targets and dealt with accordingly.

Do we need a new organization?

No, we need new people who understand the essence and scope of the problem. I recommend LTG Boykin as the Deputy Sec Def and follow on heir to Rummy. He gets it.

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

Kill them. No questions, no mercy.

Does CIA need a new finding?

No it needs a new leader and a serious housecleaning of upper and mid-level bureacrats. That goes double for the State Department.

Should we create a private foundation to entice radical madradssas to a more moderate course?

We already have a couple of taxpayer funded ones called the CIA and SOCOM. Oh, yeah, the the only moderate muslims I've seen so far are at room temperature or mixed in with clouds of dust and burnt propellant.

What else should we be considering?

A dramatic increase in force strucure and the infrastructure to support it. This is a global war. Let's start acting like it.

Please be prepared to discuss this at our meeting on Saturday or Monday.

Man, I would give my left nut to have been in that meeting.

[expatguy]

I wish to ask my fellow FReepers for advise on this - I am an expatriate American who has lived and worked in a Muslim country for many many years, I speak their language, I understand their culture and I feel I am in a unique position to offer some real solutions and suggestions that might be truly able to address a few of the questions that Rumsfield posed.

How do I get an audience, and would they even be interested to hear what I have to say?

[OXENinFLA]

How do I get an audience

Start Typing.

[mitchbert]

Rummy is right we need to think outside the box to defeat our enemies..

Right. Critics of this memo are falling into the same trap I see in my company and business in general. I'm a process engineering manager and one of the hardest cultural changes to make amongst managers is making them understand that asking "Can we do this better?" is NOT the same as saying "We're doing this wrong now."

It is only the most competent and capable managers who continually challenge their people to reevaluate their approaches candidly and honestly. Good for Rummy.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

This is good training for the future, when we enter Latin America to clean it of terrorists.

[expatguy]

Forgive me, Is Rummy a FReeper?

[ItsOurTimeNow]

My local media outlets were doing the same.

Basically making it sound that Rummy was doubting the whole effort, admitting defeat, and suggesting that we give it up.

Media spin is so inherently blatant...it makes me sick.