Rumsfeld: Head Bean-Counter
I think it is time for Bush to sack Rummy. He has served long and well -- but he has clearly outlived his maximum utility. He is a bit cranky -- and certainly out of touch with reality.
Without touching on Rumsfeld's (and his Generals') general cranial-rectal insertion approach to fighting the war in Iraq following the initial fantastic invasion, let me touch on the most salient reason why Rummy needs to go: He is fixated on closing bases as a means to "save money."
Hello? We are at War, Mr. Secretary, and by your staff's own admission, the "savings" to be realized by all your asshat base closures and sometimes absurd relocations will take years to occur.
It simply sends the wrong message at the wrong time and tells me that, instead of being upset about how his generals have hamstrung our sodiers' treatment of Iraqi "detainees" by requiring our men to treat the throatslitters like royalty, Rummy is all about saving a couple pennies here by tweaking this base over there.
It is nuts. It is ludicrous. It is penny wise and pound foolish. And all this disruption of community after community and unit after unit for what? To "save" a paltry $48Billion over TWENTY years.
First, such estimates are pulled out some Pentagon weenies' posteriors on the one hand -- and in a day of $300-Billion highway bills, to trumpet a paltry $48-Billion "projected savings" (translation: no one has a clue on how much -- if any -- will be saved) as some sort of success, is not only ludicrous, but smacks of too much time spent in the accounting books and not enough time spent in the field with the men.
Besides, can ANYONE calculate what it would cost today to build from scratch a base with infrastructure and flightline to match some of the great ones that have been closed in the past (or that are slated for closure in the future -- e.g., Norton AFB, to name one). Answer: probably about, oh, $48 Billion!
Well, Rummy's asshat base closure plan is so egregiously shortsighted and idiotic that he has ticked off many of the legislators in the President's OWN Republican Party, as this article points out.
Without touching on Rumsfeld's (and his Generals') general cranial-rectal insertion approach to fighting the war in Iraq following the initial fantastic invasion, let me touch on the most salient reason why Rummy needs to go: He is fixated on closing bases as a means to "save money."
Hello? We are at War, Mr. Secretary, and by your staff's own admission, the "savings" to be realized by all your asshat base closures and sometimes absurd relocations will take years to occur.
It simply sends the wrong message at the wrong time and tells me that, instead of being upset about how his generals have hamstrung our sodiers' treatment of Iraqi "detainees" by requiring our men to treat the throatslitters like royalty, Rummy is all about saving a couple pennies here by tweaking this base over there.
It is nuts. It is ludicrous. It is penny wise and pound foolish. And all this disruption of community after community and unit after unit for what? To "save" a paltry $48Billion over TWENTY years.
First, such estimates are pulled out some Pentagon weenies' posteriors on the one hand -- and in a day of $300-Billion highway bills, to trumpet a paltry $48-Billion "projected savings" (translation: no one has a clue on how much -- if any -- will be saved) as some sort of success, is not only ludicrous, but smacks of too much time spent in the accounting books and not enough time spent in the field with the men.
Besides, can ANYONE calculate what it would cost today to build from scratch a base with infrastructure and flightline to match some of the great ones that have been closed in the past (or that are slated for closure in the future -- e.g., Norton AFB, to name one). Answer: probably about, oh, $48 Billion!
Well, Rummy's asshat base closure plan is so egregiously shortsighted and idiotic that he has ticked off many of the legislators in the President's OWN Republican Party, as this article points out.
posted by GunJam at 8:57 PM
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