Sunday, January 05, 2003

Compare the following:
"If called on by the commander-in-chief today, two entire divisions of the Army would have to report ... Not ready for duty, sir." -- George W. Bush, Republican convention acceptance speech, Aug 3rd, 2000.
To the following:
“We can easily win a war on two fronts, Korea and Iraq,” -- Donald Rumsfeld, Dec. 23rd, 2002
Amazing the kind of turn-around the Bushies have achieved no? Speaking of which, compare the above with this from an Aug 20th, 2001 TIME article on Rumsfeld and his apparent failures to change things at the Pentagon:
In seven months as Pentagon chief, Rumsfeld has managed to spook the military, alienate defense contractors, mobilize much of Capitol Hill against him--and even make some in the White House question his toughness. It's usually a Democrat who puts the Pentagon on a wartime footing, but Rumsfeld, 69, is an armor-plated Republican and a military man to boot (he served as a Navy pilot). He has stirred up these problems by launching a much needed but oddly secretive review of the U.S. military that until last week threatened to sink ships, ground planes and retire soldiers in order to reduce U.S. forces overseas and free up money for more research in areas such as missile defense. "This is one of the most interesting situations I've seen in a long time," says Representative Norm Dicks, a pro-military Democrat from Washington State. "He says he wants the military to stop saying they can fight two wars on two fronts simultaneously. But he has opened more fronts in Washington than any Defense Secretary in memory."
Fortunately for Donald, much of this would change a few weeks after this article was published.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home