Rumsfeld stepping down

Sdiver · 11-08-2006, 12:00

FOX news is reporting that Donald Rumsfeld is stepping down.

Murph · 11-08-2006, 12:05

President Bush is speaking on it right now on Fox. Ex-CIA Chief Robert Gates is President Bush's pick to succeed Rumsfeld.

Jo Sul · 11-08-2006, 12:13

Darn, I was hoping he would pick John Kerry.

Sdiver · 11-08-2006, 12:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jo Sul

Darn, I was hoping he would pick John Kerry.

I don't think Kerry would accept.....he's too SMART for that.

rubberneck · 11-08-2006, 12:32

Is Gates really the best man for the job?

**Airbornelawyer** · 11-08-2006, 12:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by rubberneck

Is Gates really the best man for the job?

No

incommin · 11-08-2006, 12:49

Why NO?

Jim

**The Reaper** · 11-08-2006, 13:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sdiver

I don't think Kerry would accept.....he's too SMART for that.

With the count in the Sanate as close as it is, I don't think any of them would accept, unless they could pick a successor.

TR

rubberneck · 11-08-2006, 13:25

It occurred to me earlier when his replacement was announced so quickly that Rumsfeld either resigned or was forced out before yesterdays elections. If that was the case I wonder if it would have helped some candidates that lost if it had been announced earlier. Then again it might have made things worse.

I don't like the Gates thing for a couple of reasons not the least of which is the President's tendency to pick advisors with close ties to his father. If the President was interested in a new direction than he should have picked someone with fresh ideas not another advisor from a long list of recycled Bush Sr. cronies. It might not matter now that the Dems have control of the Senate as Gates might not get past the Senate confirmation hearings.

uboat509 · 11-08-2006, 13:40

He is a member of the Iraq Study Group. That should be a good thing.

SFC W

**Airbornelawyer** · 11-08-2006, 14:25

Mr. Gates was a professional intelligence officer and Washington insider. He has no significant background or experience in defense policy, and no background in politics or strong personal relationship with the President. Thus he has no independent base to exercise his authority over the Department. He will thus likely fall back into what he is familiar with, as a former Washington bureaucrat, a dependence on his fellow bureaucrats. In this case, those bureaucrats are the generals and admirals who walk the halls of the Pentagon and are more adept at maneuvering among appropriations committees and cocktail parties than through an enemy-held village. Like Secretary Powell was at the State Department and like John Negroponte as DNI, he will likely come to be more the bureaucracy's representative to the White House than the President's representative to the Pentagon.

Also, I have extremely negative memories of my experiences with the CIA over Afghan policy when Gates was DDCI and DCI.

**Jack Moroney (RIP)** · 11-08-2006, 14:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by Airbornelawyer

In this case, those bureaucrats are the generals and admirals who walk the halls of the Pentagon and are more adept at maneuvering among appropriations committees and cocktail parties than through an enemy-held village. .

Well actually it is not the flag officers that are the problem, although there are some who definitely fall within your general catagorization I'm sure, but the GS folks that are and have been entrenched in the system forever. I have had to infilitrate that five sided concrete sphincter on many occassions to make things happen and those that make things work are the 04s and 05s and those that create protective barricades upon which their longevity and survival depends are the GS folks. The jokes about the little old lady in tennis shoes is more factual than most know. While I have little use for some flag officers, many were good soldiers and troops in their time and have in fact negotiated the challenges and demands of complex situations and "enemy-held villages" but have become overtaken by events and expectations few of them ever envisioned and and for which some were never prepared. Being adept at maneuvering among appropriation committees has become a necessary skill in order to provide the resources required for those that today move through the villages. I do not envy them this task as I have had to stand before folks and justify dollars and fight for shares of the budget but not with bureaucrates in uniform but political appointees who found a niche at the pentagon when their hometowns had an excess of village idiots and they had to emigrate or starve. No flag officers are not the problem, it is the GS folks and politicians upon whom they depend and who establish the idiotic institutional rules of the road within which they must operate.

Guy · 11-08-2006, 15:00

"Listen a little, you'll understand a whole lot more!"

Guy · 11-08-2006, 15:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jack Moroney

Well actually it is not the flag officers that are the problem, although there are some who definitely fall within your general catagorization I'm sure, but the GS folks that are and have been entrenched in the system forever. I have had to infilitrate that five sided concrete sphincter on many occassions to make things happen and those that make things work are the 04s and 05s and those that create protective barricades upon which their longevity and survival depends are the GS folks. The jokes about the little old lady in tennis shoes is more factual than most know. While I have little use for some flag officers, many were good soldiers and troops in their time and have in fact negotiated the challenges and demands of complex situations and "enemy-held villages" but have become overtaken by events and expectations few of them ever envisioned and and for which some were never prepared. Being adept at maneuvering among appropriation committees has become a necessary skill in order to provide the resources required for those that today move through the villages. I do not envy them this task as I have had to stand before folks and justify dollars and fight for shares of the budget but not with bureaucrates in uniform but political appointees who found a niche at the pentagon when their hometowns had an excess of village idiots and they had to emigrate or starve. No flag officers are not the problem, it is the GS folks and politicians upon whom they depend and who establish the idiotic institutional rules of the road within which they must operate.

There is a shit pot of E-8/9s that need to be shit canned also.

Stay safe.

incommin · 11-08-2006, 15:20

1. I agree with Jack Moroney's assessment.

2. When I was informed that my next assignment would be the five sided wonder palace, or a staff job in Korea, I elected to retire. I wasn't good at kissing butt or bowing and scraping before others.

Jim