By Patrick Lang (bio below)
I watched Rumsfeld this morning on Fox News Sunday. He was asked by Wallace (the younger and lesser) if:
- commanders in the field in Iraq had been denied reinforcements they had requested and
- there was an intention to begin large scale withdrawals from Iraq in calendar 2006.
On both points he responded that such issues were the responsibility of military commanders in the chain of command and the president of the United States. He said that commanders have a responsibility to make recommendations and the president has a responsibility to make decisions. He spoke as though he has no major responsibility in these matters. He portrays himself as a kind of “post office” or “message center.” This, of course, is nonsense. The law is clear as to who is responsible for what, and his behavior in office as architect of military re-organization and generalissimo in charge of the size and strategy of the force that invaded Iraq gives him the lie.
This is typical Rumsfeld.
I once had the “privilege” of asking him a question concerning Army re-structuring. It was a professionally informed question concerning the future structure of the Army. He smiled, as he always seems to do in public, and said that he had no idea whether or not plans to change the army would “work,” but that the generals told him it would. There were a number of these very senior officers present. All they could do is squirm.
You can be sure that if there is blame to be apportioned for mistakes in Iraq, Rumsfeld will not accept any of it.
Pat Lang
Reference: AP
Col. Patrick W. Lang (Ret.), a highly decorated retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces, served as “Defense Intelligence Officer for the Middle East, South Asia and Terrorism” for the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and was later the first Director of the Defense Humint Service. Col. Lang was the first Professor of the Arabic Language at the United States Military Academy at West Point. For his service in the DIA, he was awarded the “Presidential Rank of Distinguished Executive.” He is a frequent commentator on television and radio, including MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann (interview), CNN and Wolf Blitzer’s Situation Room (interview), PBS’s Newshour, NPR’s “All Things Considered,” (interview), and more .
Personal Blog: Sic Semper Tyrannis 2005 || Bio || CV
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Novel: The Butcher’s Cleaver (download free by chapter, PDF format)
“Drinking the Kool-Aid,” Middle East Policy Council Journal, Vol. XI, Summer 2004, No. 2