He passed away today. May he rest in peace. I do think it's not too early to say that he was objectively one of the worst Sec of Defense that has ever held the title for the USA.
Probably so. It's a close call between him and Robert McNamara. I don't think either one were particularly evil men (at least by politician standards). However, they both made colossal judgment errors that cost us tremendously. I will give McNamara points for admitting his screw-up. I've never heard Rumsfeld do anything similar. What's kinda sad is that had Rumsfeld not become Bush's SECDEF or hadn't pushed for the Iraq War, he'd probably be remembered as one of the better ones (not great but above average) for his work during the Ford Administration. Obviously he along with others helped clean up McNamara's big mess (Vietnam) and transitioned away from the draft. He was also a big advocate for the cruise missile, which likely saved us a ton. It's a big reason why the B-52 can still be in service. The same could be said of McNamara had he not screwed up in Vietnam. Had that not occurred, we'd most remember him for bringing the Cuban Missile Crisis to a favorable end without war, which was obviously a massive accomplishment. When you screw up a war with far-reaching consequences, people understandably forget everything good you ever did.
McNamara comes in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, as worst Secretary of Defense. It's like asking what B10 team has the most disappointed fans at the season's end - Nebraska, Nebraska, and Nebraska. McNamara not only created the framework that prevented not just him but future leaders from winning the Vietnam war, he permanently destroyed the ability of the military to conduct operations without someone in DC giving them the OK to do this, but not that across the river or road. His micromanagement, refusal to allow commanders on the ground to execute tasked missions as needed, refusal to listen to actual facts instead of rosy outlooks, and lack of a healthy respect for the enemy, who always gets a vote in your best laid plans, leave him head and shoulders above anyone else. And unlike Iraq where the State Department were the one running the provisional government and making the big decisions of de-Baathafication and disbanding what remained of the Iraqi army (thankfully for them Sec Powell was far better than Sec Rumsfeld at leaking to the media and being chummy with them, so no blame was cast to Foggy Bottom, only the Pentagon), in Vietnam McNamara had carte blanc to run the show as he saw fit. Probably his worst aspect was his lack of healthy respect for the enemy. It's fine to think you're better than they are, but you need a respect for their ability as fighters. McNamarar never did. He continue to believe that all the US had to show the North Vietnamese and Chinese / Russians our technology superiority and they would quit - the classic case of thinking your enemy is just like you. The commies didn't care if millions of their people died. They wanted to win, in a way the the Ford President could not understand.
McNamara screwed up Vietnam. That's huge. It led to a massive American global embarrassment, handed the Soviet Union it's biggest victory of the Cold War, and probably led to the Khmer Rouge taking power in Cambodia. Domestically, it divided the country to an extent not seen since the Civil War. Furthermore, it severely damaged the United States's credibility and strength in foreign policy (both at home and abroad) in a profound way that took years to overcome. It was bad and didn't have to happen. However, Rumsfeld basically did the same thing with Iraq. It humiliated the United States abroad and divided the country at home. It opened the door for ISIS to take over the area and ended up opening opportunities for terrorists and other bad apples like Iran. Furthermore, it probably hurt our credibility with allies more than Vietnam did, because we dragged them into it. Jacques Chirac and Gerhardt Schröder looked shrewd for staying out. Tony Blair and John Howard were discredited for following our lead. We're still paying the price.
It's interesting that the position for Secretary of Defense was created at the same time the US stopped wanting to truly win wars.
Yep what was really bad about Iraq was the semantics and what we called our tactic. The profundity and insight of the Sooner never fail to amaze.
Maybe we should have said "tickle and nudge" while bombing them into hell. Has a kinder, gentler ring to it. I'm sure those at the business end of those bombs would have felt much better.
The Strategic Bombing Survey of WW II suggested that the influence of mass bombing of cities was not so effective and when I heard the ninnies of the press going on about how our shock and awe bombing was going to rattle the roof in Iraq I thought it just one more example of the arrogance of power of our lunatic governing class. The people on the receiving end were not going to be any more impressed or terrorized if you called it welcome to the neighborhood. Its intended effect was to impress on a bunch of barbarians that there was a real badazz on the loose and they better behave or else. It did not have that effect. They are much more barbaric than we are. I guess the guys in Skull and Bones were impressed, just like the press swine were.
Actually, I think the multi-week bombing campaign was effective in demoralizing an already weakened military. We were able to roll into Iraq with virtually zero resistance. Even the famed Republican Guard gave only a smidgen of pushback. We believed our own hubris when we pushed the narrative that we'd be greeted as heroes and the oil money would pay for the war. The worst part about the Iraq War is that it severely elongated our time in Afghanistan. We jerked our ME SF Battalion out of Afghanistan, replaced them with the South American SF Battalion. Seriously, what the hell to Spanish speakers trained to fight in the SA Jungle do in Afghanistan?
But how many terrorists did we create by killing civilians indiscriminately? That's my issue. We radicalized a ton of disaffected males after killing their friends and families.
That wasn't from the "shock and awe" campaign. We were actually very good at demonstrating the usefulness of our laser guided munitions. An SF buddy of mine was on the ground for those weeks of bombing hiding in the sand spotting hidden targets for the Air Force. It was the length of time we spent in Iraq and elsewhere, ample usage of drones and the decision to restrict all Baath party members from leadership that ultimately became the recruiting ground for terrorists.
After the Al Quade members ran across the border into Pakistan, in Dec 2001, the only point to staying in Afghanistan was as as staging area for drone and assault raids into Pakistan. There was never any chance of turning that spot on the map, which isn't really a country, into a functioning state. That's why as soon as Bin Laden was killed in 2011, we should have left. The last 10 years there has been a complete waste.
