Rumsfeld undermined Powell every chance he got during the UN piece of all this. How a Defense Secretary gets away with shooting his fool mouth off about diplomatic stuff he knows nothing about is beyond me.
Now, as elucidator’s link contends, and lots of people suspected anyway, it appears he’s committed the classic modern military blunder of overestimating air power, and the classic Vietnam blunder of going in with less than overwhelming force.
To quote from Alan Abelson in this week’s Barron’s, hardly an antiwar rag:
"The only surprise in all this is that the suits in the Pentagon, who decided that war was too important to leave to the generals, are surprised. My goodness (or the scatological equivalent) - we can hear the collective exclamation - it looked great and worked like a charm in the computer model!
…
“The irony is that the Powell Doctrine of bringing overwhelming force to bear, which proved a stunning success in the Gulf War, seemed the perfect template for this one and, as it happens, Mr. Powell himself is right down the hall, had Mr. Rumsfeld deigned to consult him. Rummy, though, has his own notions, and the result was a bit of a messy week for our side in Mesopotomia. What is it about defense secretaries - remember Robert McNamara? - that they’re so hot to play Clausewitz?”
The worst part of this is that now it seems Rumsfeld is not only a fool, he’s a weasel. I saw a press conference earlier today where he said the plan came from Tommy Franks and was “washed through” the Joint Chiefs a few times before being approved. Technically true, I’m sure. Technically.
On second thought, the worst part of this is that more soldiers and civilians are going to die than would have had the generals been allowed to do their job without the suits getting in the way.
And if the war lasts more than a month and this results in chaos spreading through the ME, it’s a failure no matter when the troops march into Baghdad.
Will you quit with the propoganda?!
We call it progess. 