Rummy's Failed War Memo

You’ve just got to love the desperation in the Pentagon’s decision to defend Donald Rumsfeld by releasing an e-mail memo trying to rebut the criticism against him by a growing cadre of retired generals. From the NY Times:

The memorandum begins by stating, "U.S. senior military leaders are involved to an unprecedented degree in every decision-making process in the Department of Defense." It says Mr. Rumsfeld has had 139 meetings with the Joint Chiefs of Staff since the start of 2005 and 208 meetings with the senior field commanders.

OK, so he had lots of meetings! That doesn’t mean the meetings were spent “involving anyone in his decision making process.” I remember my early years working at a well known pizza chain, and we had weekly crew meetings, nearly all of them consisting of the same stern warning from the manager not to put more than eight slices of pepperoni on a small pizza, or the store’s profit margin would be unacceptable (and thus he would lose his monthly bonus!) In all those meetings, I don’t recall a question ever being asked. Lord knows what would have happened if the operator of the pizza oven had requested adequate body armor to protect him from the heat!

The article continues:

Seeking to put the criticism of the relatively small number of retired generals into context, the e-mail message also notes that there are more than 8,000 active-duty and retired general officers alive today.

Heck, why limit it to living generals, when you could claim that 100 percent of the dead generals seem to be perfectly happy with Rumsfeld’s leadership? And not one general from any other country has made even the slightest complaint about micromanagement by Rummy, so clearly he enjoys widespread World support. He even seems to have 100 percent intergalactic support, as not one military leader of an alien life form has come out with a statement condemning him for his arrogance or his impertinence.

All I can say is that if this administration can’t plan a credible memo, it’s no wonder they can’t plan a war!