Tuesday, January 04, 2011

Don't be a hater ....

To this day - I am a huge fan. I have my reasons; I don't apologize.


UPDATE: Want.

You can find Rummy on Facebook too.

23 comments:

Outlaw Mike said...

Me too. Always been.

OT CDR, OT, but I just hafta tell you that I think I won't be forced to eat my shoes. Colman MCarthy in the WAPO on the the return of ROTC to campuses: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/29/AR2010122903033.html

Skippy-san said...

Something about rather having a sister in whore house than a brother being followed by him comes to mind.............

And we won't even start on the whole Goldberg thing.......

butch said...

Heh, Rummy follows Iowahawk.

DeltaBravo said...

Nice!  I always knew he was brilliant.  He proved it by following you.

MR T's Haircut said...

You tweet and blog with the iphone or blackberry you have.....

Byron said...

Roger that, Phib. Skippy, different strokes, neh?

DeltaBravo said...

You seem also to have the attention of the editor of Navy Times....

USMC Steve said...

I liked and trusted the guy too.   Not perfect, but name me one leader at any level that was.

Kristen said...

Very cool!  :)

CoRev said...

I too am a proponent of the integration/expanded jointness he proposed during his reign.  Yes, I was part of the/his structure at the time.

Phib, I think in this integration/jointness matter we may disagree.

MidMom said...

Colman McCarthy should read "War: the Father of Us All" by Victor Davis Hanson, and learn a thing or two about how human nature operates, from the ancient Greeks to the present. 

Anonymous said...

I liked the guy.  I trusted him.  I defended him to others.  In hindsight, I think his refusal to see reality in Iraq and his cavalier attitude toward the treatment of detainees had a cost in American lives.  I can't forgive him for that.

oldmike said...

Sorry, but his insistence on trying to win in Iraq with the minimum number of boots on the ground meant lots of unnecessary U.S. and Iraqi casualties and leaves the outcome uncertain today. He may be smart to read CDR Sal, but he made some dumb decisions as Sec. Def. However, Gates is no better.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

OM,

Precisely my biggest beef with Rummy.  Trying to fight a war on the cheap.  The morning Mattis told us "Gentlemen, as of this morning, we have no reserves." highlighted such folly.  We had 135,000 when that number should have been 180,000.  With more artillery and more FWCAS. 

ewok40k said...

numbers were enough to defeat Iraqi military, to occupy country woefully inadequate...
many campaigns in the history were ruined because of too few resources allocated, historia magistra vitae...

Charley A. said...

Rummy!   I did like his news conferences.  And Gates is the man.

cdrsalamander said...

Never said he was perfect.  Stavridis is/was a transformationalist too.

I don't need/want/expect 100%.  I'll take 85%.

DeltaBravo said...

Wait.  Is that YOUR desk, Phib?  How... what... where....did.you.get.that??? =-O

(jealous).

You are a tease. OMG.

DeltaBravo said...

I did my homework.  It's his famous standing desk.  Thanks for the heads up.  Should be a fascinating read!!!!

Grandpa Bluewater said...

I'm a "bring a full toolbox to the jobsite" kinda guy about the operational level of war. Sec. R. not so much. In the middle east, if you don't have enough troops to guard it after you captured it, it will be stolen promptly.Still recapturing that arms and ammo.  Military government planning pretty much a total bust.  The Marine CG is said to have gone to the Army CG and said "Wars over, we won, happy to have been of assistance, when will the Army take over our turf?" The army guy said (allegedly) "No soap, can't spare you, didn't bring enough of my own to do that." Bit late for that conversation. So Rummy gets rated a dummy in long term planning for waging war, in my meaningless, never set foot in the Pentagon, mostly at sea while on active duty opinion.  If you don't want the same problems as the last guy to do this (Brits - 1920's), study what was done and do it different. "Repeat same behavior get same result" proved to be too alive and well.  Swartzkopf muffed the prisoner handling planning the first time through, no excuse to do it the second.

 Busy conquered armies being paid to clean up the mess, marching with shovels at shoulder arms are less likely to cause trouble than beaten disbanded and jobless, although our idiot procounsel seems to have the have his tracks on that football. Should have kept the old retired 3 star who knew and was known, and kicked him up a star, a la the KOG. Never heard Sec. R. had a dog in that fight, think he should have.

I think he didn't listen very well, didn't walkabout very well, got captured and channeled by the routine of the job, might have discouraged young turk input...and 3 stars and above don't qualify. The higher you go the harder you have to listen to your subordinates, IMO.

Smacking the press around is fun, but they just lie in wait and wait to ambush you. Better to be polite until you are past it and can enjoy being a gadfly.

Nice gambit to troll for comments, though.

Not a big fan, personally. Thought he should have done better, given his ability and goals.

On naval strategy and fleet recapitalization/maintenence, the guy was a dead loss.

UltimaRatioRegis said...

That depends entirely on what the missing 15% consists of.

Aubrey said...

Gates is a fool who will say anything to anyone to make himself more comfortable and more secure.  The man actually manages to make even Wesley Clark look tough and principled....

Byron said...

That desk is way scary too neat...