The Taliban defeated without American infantry, and at a cost of fewer than ten U.S. fatalities? Ten thousand Special Operations troops turned loose to work independently in northern Iraq? Not one traditional armored division on the ground near Baghdad? Thousands of GIs rumored soon to be redeployed out of Germany? Troops in the DMZ eyeing transfer southward to Pusan? Past draftees characterized as not as effective as present volunteer professionals? A secretary of defense going head-to-head with seasoned and cynical Washington reporters—and coming off as their moral and intellectual superior?
These are all aspects of the same fundamental question: What exactly is going on with the American military? Not since secretary of war Edwin M. Stanton poked his head into every department of the Union Army and Robert McNamara tried to apply corporate business procedures to the Pentagon bureaucracy has a U.S. official exercised such political and military influence as Donald Rumsfeld. But while Stanton was politically inept and McNamara failed at war, so far—27 months into his tenure—Rumsfeld is showing every sign of success. At home, he is steamrolling angry generals and balky diplomats; on the battlefield, he has crushed the Taliban and Saddam Hussein.
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