Word: rumsfeldism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Franks gets along with Rumsfeld--who doesn't suffer fools lightly, especially if they are in uniform--because he has the right mix of attitude and intellect. More than a dozen senior officers who have worked with him over the years say that behind the aw-shucks, I've-never-had-sushi wrapping is a very well-oiled military mind. In an interview with TIME, Rumsfeld heaped praise on his field marshal for being open to new ideas. "He's intelligent and quick, and he knows his stuff," Rumsfeld said. "He has total ownership over these matters. He cares only...
...like any good soldier, the general knows when to keep his head down. Rumsfeld loves the spotlight; Franks is only too happy to stay out of it. "Franks thought that Schwarzkopf cut way too high a profile during the Gulf War," says a military subordinate who has worked on Franks' Centcom staff. "He thinks it's tawdry." Ultimately, Franks is really more comfortable behind the scenes. A Marine officer puts it another way: "He's been a low-profile guy all the way up. That's been the secret to his success...
Sept. 11 launched Franks on a different trajectory. The war in Afghanistan was an operation that was initially run by the CIA but gradually became a more traditional Centcom show. Franks didn't exactly wow the White House at first. Bush and Rumsfeld were impatient with the war's progress; the U.S. let bin Laden get away at Tora Bora, and a year later the search for the remnants of the Taliban continues. Franks had been set to retire in mid-2002, and if the Bush team had wanted to change generals, it could easily have done so. But Bush...
...fallout of Bush’s rhetoric means that anti-war groups must be increasingly vigilant about sustaining active debate rather than committing the same mistakes from the other side of the fence. Every time I hear a group or publication ironically refer to Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld as the Washington “axis of evil,” I cringe. As we barrel ahead toward war, we must not fall into the same trap as those we criticize...
...lies beyond the realm of the sovereignty-based UN system, and even such close allies as the British may have trouble selling their electorate a war on that basis. But some of the key architects of the administration's war plans, such as Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld never hid their disdain for the UN disarmament process, insisting over the past six months that Saddam is an incorrigible threat that can be eliminated only through regime-change...