Musings, leadership tidbits and quotes posted by a retired Navy Captain (really just a high performing 2nd Class Petty Officer) who hung up his uniform a bit too early. He still wears his Navy service on his sleeve. He needs to get over that. "ADVANCE WARNING - NO ORIGINAL THOUGHT!" A "self-appointed" lead EVANGELIST for the "cryptologic community". Keeping CRYPTOLOGY alive-one day and Sailor at a time. 2015 is 80th Anniversary of the Naval Security Group.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Priorities
"Skipper, if your officers, Chiefs and Sailors don't know what your command's top three priorities are, your command may not have any."
Paraphrasing my former boss, Donald H. Rumsfeld
From his new book to be released in May - "RUMSFELD'S RULES"
5 comments:
Anonymous
said...
Mike, Interesting you should post this on the 10th anniversary of the start of Iraqi Freedom. lsc
One reason this country is where it's at today is because of the decisions and recommendations this guy made...Where would we be if we didn't go to war? I think we would be better off. I will not be buying his book thats for sure.
I'm not asking anyone to buy his books. Having served on his staff during the Abu Ghraib and GTMO Detainee Abuse fiascos, I can say that the public's perception of the man is far removed from reality. He endeavored to serve the country to the best of his ability and he was tireless in his work. I have great respect for him.
While no fan of Rumsfeld and I would never say the invasion of Iraq was conceived nor executed properly, I have to say it was not all Rumsfeld's fault. Did he play a part? Absolutely, a major part. But the entire system failed repeatedly. OIF was the result of the collective wisdom of a lot of people. Franks, Pace, Myers, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, Feith, Tenet, Rice, Powell, Chaney, and Bush just name a few. They were active particpants in developing the rationale and the plan. They allowed the hairbrained idea that al-Qaeda and Saddam were in collusion to become a rationale for war. They allowed the idea Iraq would welcome an invading force with flowers in the streets, they allowed the invasion force to be a quarter the size of the Desert Storm force. They allowed that force to start heading for the exits as soon as hostilities ended. They sent people like Gardner and Bremer and Sanchez to iraq and expected them to perform miracles. Rumsfeld was the SECDEF and he can be held responsible for a lot of the dysfunction. But dont forget that a lot high ranking guys in uniform followed along and that other equally powerful people stood on the sidelines. At least Rumsfeld has come out in the open and layed it all out for people to discuss and criticize. He has not washed his hands or disappeared into comfortable retirement. The more we read about OIF and the events leading up to it, the less likey we will repeat. At least we can hope that is true. But if just stick our heads in the sand through finding a convenient scapegoat to blame it on we will travel this road again. Does the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ring any bells? lsc
5 comments:
Mike, Interesting you should post this on the 10th anniversary of the start of Iraqi Freedom. lsc
This guy is a world class jerk.
One reason this country is where it's at today is because of the decisions and recommendations this guy made...Where would we be if we didn't go to war? I think we would be better off. I will not be buying his book thats for sure.
I'm not asking anyone to buy his books. Having served on his staff during the Abu Ghraib and GTMO Detainee Abuse fiascos, I can say that the public's perception of the man is far removed from reality. He endeavored to serve the country to the best of his ability and he was tireless in his work. I have great respect for him.
While no fan of Rumsfeld and I would never say the invasion of Iraq was conceived nor executed properly, I have to say it was not all Rumsfeld's fault. Did he play a part? Absolutely, a major part. But the entire system failed repeatedly. OIF was the result of the collective wisdom of a lot of people. Franks, Pace, Myers, Rumsfled, Wolfowitz, Feith, Tenet, Rice, Powell, Chaney, and Bush just name a few. They were active particpants in developing the rationale and the plan. They allowed the hairbrained idea that al-Qaeda and Saddam were in collusion to become a rationale for war. They allowed the idea Iraq would welcome an invading force with flowers in the streets, they allowed the invasion force to be a quarter the size of the Desert Storm force. They allowed that force to start heading for the exits as soon as hostilities ended. They sent people like Gardner and Bremer and Sanchez to iraq and expected them to perform miracles. Rumsfeld was the SECDEF and he can be held responsible for a lot of the dysfunction. But dont forget that a lot high ranking guys in uniform followed along and that other equally powerful people stood on the sidelines. At least Rumsfeld has come out in the open and layed it all out for people to discuss and criticize. He has not washed his hands or disappeared into comfortable retirement.
The more we read about OIF and the events leading up to it, the less likey we will repeat. At least we can hope that is true. But if just stick our heads in the sand through finding a convenient scapegoat to blame it on we will travel this road again. Does the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution ring any bells? lsc
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