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The definition of the word mull.
Mullings by Rich Galen�
An American Cyber-Column By Rich Galen
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Seven Days in April

Monday April 19, 2006


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  • In 1962 novelists Fletcher Knebel and Charles Bailey wrote a political thriller, "Seven Days in May" about an attempted coup by senior US military officers against an unpopular President.

  • While the current exhilaration by the Popular Press in a handful of Generals calling for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to join them in retirement is not coup material; it does serve to remind us that, in the US, civilians control the military, not the other way around.

  • Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution reads:
    The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States ...

  • It is perfectly acceptable for a retired General or Admiral or, for that matter, a Spec 4, to voice his or her opinion about anything they want. But it should not be lost on us that anyone who rises in opposition to the Bush Administration is given a platform, a microphone, and a TV camera to give their opinions the widest possible release.

  • The anti-Bush flavor-of-the week is Donald Rumsfeld.

  • I have met Rumsfeld. In fact, back in 2002 I posted a photo of the two of us taken after a meeting at the Pentagon.

    SIDEBAR

    If you go to the SDR you will see that I'm the fat guy on the right. This was when I was tipping the scales at a robust 200 el-bee-ess and subsequently went on two diets: Atkins, during which I lost 20 pounds; and the Baghdad Diet, during which I lost an additional 30.

    There is no evidence that my posting this photo and my being posted to Iraq had anything to do with each other.

    But then, there's no evidence they didn't.

    END SIDEBAR

  • Donald Rumsfeld has been many things:
    Active Duty and Reserve Naval Officer
    Congressional Staffer
    Member of Congress (elected four times)
    Assistant and then Counselor to President Nixon
    Ambassador to NATO
    Chief of Staff for President Ford
    Secretary of Defense (Youngest ever)
    CEO of G.D. Searle
    CEO of General Instruments
    Secretary of Defense (Oldest ever)

  • Here's what Donald Rumsfeld has never been:
    Warm
    Cuddly
    Sufferer of fools

  • The recent wave - if six retired Generals make a wave - of criticism about Rumsfeld has its roots in the earliest days of the George W. Bush Administration.

  • On May 20, 2001 - exactly four months into the first term, the Washington Post ran a piece about the growing dissatisfaction in the US military over Rumsfeld's commitment to "create a new vision for the American military, looking at everything from missile defenses and global strategy to the flaws of a Truman-vintage personnel system."

  • The US military, especially the US Army, is rooted in tradition. Uprooting those traditions was not well received as the UK "Independent" reminded us in its on-line edition yesterday:
    An atmosphere of revolt is not new. In 2001, a "generals' rebellion" at Mr Rumsfeld's reform plans was close to boiling over until dissent was cut short by 11 September.

  • The UK "Telegraph" added:
    Generals have been muttering about Mr Rumsfeld almost since he took up his post in 2001 � pledging to overhaul the bureaucracy and make the military lighter on its feet.

  • So, sober discussion over the statements of these Generals should include a question of whether they really believe that Rumsfeld is singly responsible for the difficulties in Iraq; or whether they have been looking for a reason to pile on since 2001, and the waning support for a war many of them were actually responsible for waging has given them that reason.

  • There are a number of Rumsfeld-isms which have made their way around the web. This is one of my favorites:
    "If you waited until you could do everything before you did anything, you probably would end up doing nothing."
    On a the Secret Decoder Ring page today: A link to the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund, plus that 2002 photo with Rumsfeld (and another photo showing what I looked like two years later); a link to Rumsfeld's official DoD bio; an odd Mullfoto and a Catchy Caption of the Day.

    --END --
    Copyright © 2006 Richard A. Galen


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