The Army Times editorial slamming Rumsfeld is more interesting than meets the eye. This is a private newspaper owned by the same company that owns USA Today. It caters to the military, but has no affiliation of any kind with the military or the Department of Defense. None of the folks on the editorial board are currently military and an editorial assistant at the outfit couldn’t think of any editor who ever had been in the military. They have no more visibility into the military than any other newspaper, which is to say not much.
What’s so slimy about this is that the Army Times has created a story that will get reported as “Army Newspaper Calls For Rummy to Resign” right before the election — but no such thing has happened. This is just a random outfit that tailors USA Today articles to target the military. The Army actually does have a news service run by military folks. It runs stories like this one and needless to say it does not editorialize.
The Secretary’s office posted this response to the Army Times editorial, in my opinion superfluously since the editorial didn’t have much to say except to give the impression that military is openly revolting against the Secretary, which is a dumb fantasy.
The hard truth — and I know people don’t want to hear it — is that Rumsfeld is hugely popular among the military, as is obvious in any of his Town Halls and speeches to them. It will be interesting to see how the military reacts to the Army Times editorial. I wouldn’t be surprised by a fairly serious blowback.