Word: rumsfeldism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...ended "major combat activity" in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced last week, adding "we clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction activities." But "stability" is a relative term, and the accompanying announcement that the U.S. would like to withdraw its forces by the end of summer next year may have been received with a measure of anxiety by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. That's because the security situation in Afghanistan today may be worse than it was a year ago - and the Taliban appear to be making something...
...Rumsfeld's declaration reflects a shift in the orientation of U.S. operations away from large-scale sweeps - such as Operation Valiant Strike, which saw some 1,000 U.S. soldiers trawl through southeastern Afghanistan in March - that are designed to root out Taliban and al-Qaeda diehards. Such operations haven't proved particularly effective in eliminating the small, mobile enemy formations that continue to operate throughout eastern and southern Afghanistan, across the border in Pakistan's tribal areas (where the local elected leadership is openly pro-Taliban) and in the Taliban's Pashtun heartland...
...Only days before Rumsfeld spoke in Kabul, two U.S. soldiers were killed in a daylight attack by a group of Taliban fighters in southeastern Afghanistan, while U.S. outposts come under (mostly inaccurate) fire on an almost daily basis. Spring has seen an escalation in both the number and intensity of operations by the Taliban and its allies - although there may now be less direct involvement by al-Qaeda personnel, the new guerrilla war appears to involve a coordinated command structure combining Taliban fighters, loyalists of the fiercely anti-American warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and other former Mujahedeen commanders alienated from...
DISMISSED. THOMAS WHITE, 59, U.S. Army Secretary; by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; in Washington. After criticism of his role as a former executive of Enron, White had a public dispute with Rumsfeld last year over the Crusader artillery program, which White saw as key to modernizing the Army and which Rumsfeld canceled...
...finally figured out the reason for North Korea's bizarre behavior of late: some time last year, in a still top-secret caper, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld must have convinced North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to switch sides and sign on to the Pentagon payroll. Okay, I admit this is far fetched. But it might just explain the series of self-defeating plays Kim has made on the strategic chessboard since President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" speech. Of course, Pyongyang's approach to statecraft has always appeared a tad peculiar, its international posture unapologetically savage...