On Rumsfeld

Where to start with this guy. A bio? Okay. Here's the quick and dirty on the Secretary of Unending War Defense.

In case you're wondering, this unabashed hawk never served in the military. However, I do think that Rumsfeld more than most of the neo-con hawks knows about the reality of war.

Born in 1932 in Chicago, Illinois, he graduated from Princeton University in 1954 and served as a naval aviator for three years before going to Washington to work under two congressmen. Rumsfeld briefly left politics to join an investment bank, but returned to Washington in 1962 at age 30 to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives as a representative from Illinois. He was re-elected in 1964, 1966 and 1968. He remained in the House until resigning in 1969 to join the administration of President Richard Nixon as director of the Office of Economic Opportunity.

After serving as U.S. Ambassador to NATO in Brussels from 1973-1974, he was called back to Washington to work in the Ford administration as the White House chief of staff and later, at age 46, as the youngest U.S. secretary of defence in the country’s history.

After President Ford lost his re-election bid to Jimmy Carter in 1976, Rumsfeld returned to the corporate world where he served as chief executive, president, and then chairman of G.D. Searle & Co., a worldwide pharmaceutical company. During his business career, Rumsfeld continued public service in a variety of posts. His most recent positions include the chairmanship of an independent commission to review and assess the ballistic missile threat to the United States and a commission to evaluate the management of American space operations. Before being sworn in as the 21st secretary of defence, Rumsfeld was the chairman of Gilead Sciences, Inc.

He married Joyce Pierson in 1954. They have three children.

Bio. courtesy of Defense Link. Thanks!!!

He was sworn in as Secretary of defense on 20 January, 2001.

Okay, enough about background. Donald Rumsfeld's appears as a signatory to many of the documents at the ominous sounding Project for a New American Century.

A group of neo-conservative idealogues that see American power to be used around the world as a show of American might. This small group of mostly white middle-aged men have a roadmap wherein America dominates the global geo-political landscape forever.

This swaggering septuagenarian has almost single-handedly, with his caustic rhetoric, alienated the US with much of Europe at a time when diplomacy is needed. This is either some childish way to coerce our allies into falling into line by insulting them, or it is the rantings of an aging Cold Warrior attempting a last gasp effort to win for himself the glory that he never had in his youth.

Okay, so sure, there may be other reasons, such as the "Bad Cop" scenario. Rumsfeld ruffles the world's feathers, and Bush--certainly not a highly skilled diplomat--swoops in when it appears all is lost, and breaches the rifts between the US, Britain and most of the rest of the West. I think it's a task that's above Bush's level of ability.

The UK newspaper, The Observer reported this yesterday:

Excerpt:

....The plan - discussed by Pentagon officials and military chiefs last week on the orders of Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - is designed 'to harm' the German economy to make an example of the country for what US hawks see as Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's 'treachery'.

The hawks believe that making an example of Germany will force other countries heavily dependent on US trade to think twice about standing up to America in future.

This follows weeks of increasingly angry exchanges between Rumsfeld and Germany, in which at one point he taunted Germany and France for being an irrelevant part of 'old Europe'.

Now Rumsfeld has decided to go further by unilaterally imposing the Pentagon's sanctions on a country already in the throes of economic problems.

'We are doing this for one reason only: to harm the German economy,' one source told The Observer last week.

'Our troops contribute many millions of dollars. Why should we continue to support a country which has treated Nato and the protection we provided for decades with such incredible contempt?'

Another Pentagon source said: 'The aim is to hit German trade and commerce. It is not just about taking out the troops and equipment; it is also about cancelling commercial contracts and defence-related arrangements.' .....

If true, this is yet another show of American arrogance..be the threat real or not. The Pentagon is biting off an awful lot, at a time when they appear inexorably to be marching off to war with Iraq.

Then there was this from the Washinton Post which I posted yesterday. There is both praise for Rumsfeld bluntness in expressing his ideas--it is suggested that Rumsfeld more than any other adminstration official, "Most closely reflects what President Bush thinks"--to outright calls for his ouster.

I think Rumsfeld should be cut loose. At a time when he is boasting about the UN becoming, "Irrelevant", it is Mr. Rumsfeld that needs to go to pasture. He is becoming increasingly polarizing, and out of touch with the wishes of the greater world. This is one old non-soldier, that needs to fade out. Now.

Tomorrow's Rant: Who's irrelevant, who decides

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