[WOSG]

I am not baffled at all by Rumsfeld resisting the easy but wrong answer of simple headcount expansion.

This is typical of organizations, they think only of "more" or "less" rather than "different". Rummy is trying to shake up the thinking so we *reorganize* for the 21st century with 21st century strategy tactics, tools and technology.

Just the simple fact alone that 300,000 uniformed officers are desk jockeys ought to tell you ALL you need to know about how inefficient the Federal Govts biggest bureaucracy likely is. That alone is a HUGE waste, probably $40 billion in overhead that could be cut in half.

That is why Rummy is a great CEO, he knows that redesigning structures and missions and organizations can give you hugely more output for the same input. And he knows it is his JOB to search and execute on making those effeciency and effectiveness gains.

In my own company, we've gone from 140,000 employees to under 90,000 employees - on modestly lower sales. oh, and that is in 6 years. look at AT&T in 1980 and today.

The Army of 1989 is not what we need today. We dont need bigger, we need different: Leaner, more flexible, able to globally reposition easily, not tied down to expensive overseas stationing of minor security value (eg germany), etc. Rethink everything, and we will be able to satisfy ALL our national security needs with the current DoD headcount and budget.

[livius]

I also think it's a great idea to get soldiers out of desk duty. People do not join the military to spend their lives processing orders. Civilians with desk-job experience can do it better, and will probably be more attentive to things like waste, overbilling, etc.

It should be stressed time and again that people join the military to fight. And if that's not why they joined, they should re-think the whole thing.