Word: rumsfelds
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That one still applies. In seven months as Pentagon chief, Rumsfeld has managed to spook the military, alienate defense contractors, mobilize much of Capitol Hill against him--and even make some in the White House question his toughness. It's usually a Democrat who puts the Pentagon on a wartime footing, but Rumsfeld, 69, is an armor-plated Republican and a military man to boot (he served as a Navy pilot). He has stirred up these problems by launching a much needed but oddly secretive review of the U.S. military that until last week threatened to sink ships, ground planes...
Which helps explain why, all of a sudden last Friday, Rumsfeld sued for peace. After hinting for months that the new Administration might force the Army, Navy and Air Force to cut two or three divisions, 40 to 50 ships and as many as 72 fighters, the Pentagon chief said, in effect, never mind. The three services, he announced, can decide for themselves how to prepare for the future. "This is a big organization," he said. "The services make lots of decisions. It would be foolhardy to try to micromanage from the top...every aspect of everything that is going...
...Rumsfeld had reasons for his secrecy. When push came to shove, the military didn't much want to re-examine itself. When he asked for recommendations about how to change, the Navy came in with a request for five additional aircraft carriers. The Air Force offered to mothball some old bombers but would not sacrifice a single fighter plane. The Army proposed to cut the Reserves--an idea it knew Congress would never approve. But there was something else going on. Throughout the campaign, the Bush team kept complaining about burdensome overseas commitments. The military, however, regarded all the extra...
With the military brass suspicious of him, Rumsfeld then did something truly strange. He kept his potential allies on Capitol Hill--Republicans and Democrats alike--completely in the dark about his plans. Senators from shipbuilding states could not find out if their beloved destroyers and frigates would be axed. Members of Congress with divisions stationed in their backyards kept hearing rumors about deactivation but could not confirm them. There were new leaks every day about dismantling National Guard units and mothballing ships. And when the lawmakers managed to corner him, Rumsfeld gave nothing away. "He made everybody mad," says Dicks...
Behind the scenes, Rumsfeld was making some progress. By late July, he had yoked the Joint Chiefs together and won their O.K. to abandon a cornerstone of U.S. defense strategy--the ability to fight two simultaneous wars. For a decade, that strategy had helped justify the large force structure left over from the cold war. Once Rumsfeld got the generals to abandon it, he could pressure the services to downsize and refashion their forces in support of a more realistic strategy--such as winning one war decisively while deploying peacekeeping troops in perhaps half a dozen other places. "He really...