Word: rumsfeldism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld--who has long opposed a permanent hike in the Army's 500,000-strong active-duty force--made himself scarce as these troubling indicators surfaced. The Defense chief has argued that retooling the Army--turning cooks and accountants into trigger pullers and hiring contractors to perform such civilian tasks, among other steps--should generate efficiencies that would ease the strain on the Army without having to boost its size. But other Pentagon officials doubt that such measures will suffice. "We're growing increasingly concerned about the health of the force," an Army personnel officer says. "These...
...lack of usable intelligence they were getting from prisoners, asked Washington to approve the use of more aggressive techniques than the 17 methods in the manual, the legal groundwork had already been prepared for a new age of harsher--and now legal--interrogation. In December 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld signed off on 16 additional measures for use at Gitmo, including stress positions, such as standing for long periods; isolation for up to a month; hooding during transportation and questioning; removal of clothing; and "exploiting individual phobias, e.g., dogs." A study led by former Pentagon chief James Schlesinger reported last...
...State Department and attorneys representing the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the military services opposed abandoning the strict reliance on Geneva, chiefly because it might endanger U.S. troops who could be captured and denied the Conventions' protection. In January 2003, owing to concerns from the Navy's top lawyer, Rumsfeld abruptly rescinded his December order, pending a study, and ordered that the tougher measures could only be applied with his approval. Three months later, the study group recommended the use of some of the new interrogation techniques at Guant??namo. Dropped from the list were hooding, nudity...
TIME said a reporter helped Army Specialist Thomas Wilson craft the question he asked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld about U.S. troops having inadequately armored vehicles [Dec. 20]. That should in no way detract from the seriousness of the shortages and the problems that our troops are facing in combat in Iraq. It does not make Rumsfeld's answer--"You go to war with the Army you have"--less callous or arrogant. And it certainly does not make the deaths and horrific injuries suffered by our troops less real or less painful to bear because they lack such protection...
...Rumsfeld's brusque response--that even a fully armored vehicle "can be blown up"--Wilson says, "Personally, I didn't like that answer." But as a George W. Bush supporter, he adds, "I hope I didn't do any damage to Secretary Rumsfeld." After the meeting, Wilson told Rumsfeld he did not intend to put him "on the spot" or show disrespect, and the two shook hands. While most soldiers were "overwhelmingly positive" afterward, one officer suggested Wilson should have asked the question in a more "proper forum." Says Wilson: "My response was, 'What would the proper forum...