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Subject: Your anti-rumsfeld cons are…
…not involved with DOD, clearly. I’ve been working with DOD for 25 years. Rumsfeld is the most effective SecDef we have ever had, including Cheney. You have no idea how hard it is to effect change in the Pentagon, but he has managed to develop a culture of joint operations that has never before existed.
Before everyone throws him over board, you might want to remember that our military’s ability to defeat Saddam in 3 weeks with minimal casualties is a direct result of the joint operations doctrine….
SecDef has a lot less to do with operations than you think. He set policy. If you want to complain about operations [in Iraq] you need to start pointing fingers at the joint chiefs.
As for the last 3 years [in Iraq], that is the result of loss of OUR national will. We’ve never made it OK to put overwhelming force on the ground. Maybe if Bush has won with 65% of the vote in 2004, or his approval numbers were 70%…