Posted on 03/23/2009 4:57:29 PM PDT by Nachum
As the Bush administration was drawing to a close, Robert M. Gates, whose two years as defense secretary had been devoted to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, felt compelled to warn his successor of a crisis closer to home.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
The List, ping
They could have a yard sale. One man’s junk is another man’s pleasure...
well, there goes high tech companies development of new military toys.
Yeah, VISTA darn near killed every one's PC's
What? Not THAT Gates?
Never mind....
There was also the Comanche helicopter. Typical MSM diligence.
Bush appointed Gates because he was the consumate DC politician.
I miss Rummy!
So, we are going to “invest” in roads and bridges we might not even need, so that we can employ more illegal aliens.
However, we will wound our manufacturing base by cutting off weapons programs that have already been approved?
I'm not nearly as worried about our wounded manufacturing base, as our wounded or killed military, who won't have the latest and greatest, as 100 million ChiComs come to collect the debt we owe.
Time to take down all the GPS satellites which are used to guide weapons.....oh, that was military technology adapted to commercial use. But Obama doesn’t need GPS he has his own fleet of planes, helicopters, cars, etc. The next war will be fought by his own volunteer troops with GREEN weapons like sling shots.
Rummy didn’t listen to his Generals. We’re well rid of him.
There will be a next time for some one to say
“You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you want to have”
Go easy on the cuts, thats American lives your sending to battle
They get there by retiring the Enterprise in 2012 as planned, foregoing the refueling of the Lincoln (CVN-72) and sending it directly to mothballs about the time CVN-78 comes online.
This comes as China is proceeding with carrier development.
This is the Navy's plan but I suspect that Obama will try to cut deeper.
Hope & change, VA voters/shipyard workers. Have fun.
Which leaves us without a new air superiority fighter.
And don't mention the F35.
More like Rummy would be fine with me, especially as hard and loud as the left screamed for him to get out.
Maybe you forget he opposed the surge? Enough said!
Chemical, Biological, and Nuclear weapons, then Øbama wants to be the pacifist, we’ll be well behind in 3 short years, a no brainer with the technology that’s around today
If he considers Islamo-fascists to be the only military challenge facing the U.S. then I'm worried.
Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said.
So much for the left's whining about giving our troops the best possible equipment. Anyone surprised that it was all just political posturing?
No, I didn’t forget.
Times change and situations change. It is very easy to say that in 2004 it should have been done a certain way when we have success in 2009.
You said he didn’t listen to his generals. That is an erroneous conclusion based on your perception. He NEVER refused to listen to his generals. Just because he didn’t agree with some of them doesn’t mean he didn’t listen to them.
Rumsfeld’s job as the Secretary of Defense was to make a recommendation to the President based on input from ALL of his generals, not the recommendation of one, two or three of them. He understood the nature of his job, and so did President Bush.
President Bush and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld had valid reasons for taking the approach they did. In the end, it turned out other reasons overrode those valid reasons and Bush made the correct choice in adopting a different approach.
War is not a board you can lay the pieces out on and then execute like a Microsoft Project plan to construct a building. It is full of change and uncertainty.
What are you talking about? They will get the best sexual harassment and anti-gay bashing videos money can buy!
Welllll then, as long as they’re politically correct. I don’t want our troops bashing Special Olympics kids or calling women ‘sweetie’ either.
Rumsfeld, everyone’s whipping boy, took a Clinton caused seriously depleted and diminished military, rebuilt it into a fantastic fighting machine, ready to take on today's enemies any where, any place.. He incurred the displeasure of the old guard (some generals and McCain) but he is responsible for putting it all together in the face of considerable opposition. My hats off to Rumsfeld. I know those of you who disagree are warming up, so come on, let me have it!!
don’t forget Russia is building and expanding it’s armed forces - ditto China
ever wonder why?
I have no clue, but I read the reports
I have your six, elpadre...
I had not heard about this.
This is extreme.
In the end success is all that matters. Rumsfeld opposed the plan that brought ultimate success. That’s what he’ll be remembered for. I could probably find things that MacNamara did that were good but it won’t change history’s judgement of his failure.
When I said Rummy didn’t listen to his Generals, you know what I meant. Having someone in and letting them bend your ear for a few minutes then ignoring what they say doesn’t constitute listening.
No, I disagree. Success is not all that matters, when we can look back at it after the fact.
If that were true, Admiral Nimitz would have never made it to flag officer rank because he was the Commanding Officer of a destroyer that went aground when he was a young officer. But someone made a decision back then that went against the prevailing wisdom, that the Captain is is always going to be culpable in a grounding.
When you say “He didn’t listen to his generals” that explicitly means he ignored them.
He did no such thing. I don’t know anything about you or what you do for a living, but I find it hard to believe you can make a statement like that while at the same time, understanding the duality of responsibility and the decision making process.
I just spent a year and a half of my life engrossed in installing a system that could directly affect the lives of thousands of people. Hundreds of my co-workers use this system as their primary tool to deliver care to patients, and if I made a subtle mistake in the way I implemented this, I could contribute directly to the death of a patient.
There were occasions where I was making dozens of decisions a day. I had to meet with and get the advice and input of many people in order to make the right choice, and often many of these people knew a lot more about certain aspects of issues than I did.
But it was not a democracy. I did not take a vote and the majority won. There were times I made a decision to go in a particular direction against the advice of people. Not because I was right and they were wrong, but because I was selected to do this job because I had to be the one to tie it together.
That was Rumsfeld’s responsibility to his President.
And by the way, McNamara WAS a failure, and would have been even if we succeeded in Vietnam.
Rumsfeld was NOT a failure. He coordinated and was largely responsible for one of the most efficient and overwhelming military victories with the smallest number of casualties in history.
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