An autographed collector's edition of my former boss's newest best selling book, RUMSFELD'S RULES in a well crafted leather box. This will go on the shelf and I'll grab another copy to read and annotate. As he says, these are not Rumsfeld's Rules at all but rather a collection of thoughtful rules he has picked up in his 50+ years of selfless public service.
I'm not a bookseller, but you can get yourself a copy of his book HERE. There are some excellent leadership tips in there.
14 comments:
Excellent book and some really salient suggestions. Ordering my copy now.
Negative comments appreciated but you have to own them.
no need to post ....not sure what yr 12:43 is refering to but suspect that once again you demonstrate your zampolit leanings....
Great man and great American.
Mike,
One cannot help but admire the life accomplishments of Mr. Rumsfeld. His snarky press conferences were entertaining for sure, but his tenure as SECDEF was fraught with failed policies and poor judgements. To wit:
Not taking control of his underlings, Wolfowitz and Feith, who proposed attacking Iraq four days after 9/11.
Buying the tripe peddled by Ahmed Chalabi and ignoring the obvious warning signs that Chalabi was in fact a shyster.
Walking away from a half-baked Afghanistan to launch a war in Iraq.
Invading Iraq without a Phase Four plan.
Trying to run a two front war on the cheap with minimal forces.
Bottom line: The ultimate bureaucratic failing: His policies and advice derailed his boss and helped create the conditions we now see across the middle-east of rampant violence and chaos.
Lee Cardwell
@ Lee Cardwell
That's what I call ownership.
Mike
It may be a stretch to blame all those things on Mr. Rumsfeld but I'm sure he'd have no problem with the criticism.
@ Cardwell
Thank goodness none of us has to account for the misdeeds of ALL of our subordinates.
Lee
I agree that Paul Wolfowitz was an ill-intentioned man from the start. The SECDEF dealt with 1000s of proposals from his staff. I think that 'on the whole' SECDEF did a commendable job. In my two years with him, I never once sensed one bit of the ego people attribute to him. He struck me as a fairly altruistic person. He implemented the President's policies as best he was able. We have our opinions and history will decide. You don't know what you don't know.
He served twice as SECDEF. I give him a lot of credit for that. Seem to recall reading somewhere that he donated his SECDEF salary to the Pentagon 9/11 foundation. Who can fault a man who gave his best AND served in the United States Navy.
Mike:
I know you have high regard for him as a boss. The rest of us have to judge him on his public record,and the record includes being part of the policy team (along with Wolfowitz, Cheney and Cambone) that led us into OIF.
The record is very clear on the eventual ground truth of the WMD presence that drove this policy.
Mr. Rumsfeld should consider one of the rules he cites during his current reappearance in the public eye while hawking his book on the talk show circuit: "Climb, Conserve, Confess".
Like most of the rules in the book, this was not crafted by the author, but "borrowed" from elsewhere. This one comes from a rule of thumb for lost aviators in order to regain their bearings.
Now that he's in his dotage and has concluded his service to his country, how could he apply this rule to his own life?
Here's one possible scenario:
(1) *Climb* behind a lectern
(2) *Conserve* his usual rhetorical gymnastics
(3) *Confess* to his role in the fabrication of Iraq's WMD program and the resulting deaths of nearly five thousand military coalition members (and many thousands more Iraqi civilians) that were the result of Operation Iraqi Freedom's incorrect casus belli.
Until he shows a speck of contrition, I have no interest in hearing any more from him about his "rules". He had his time, and we've already seen the results.
Alternatively, he could write a new rule all his own: "Don't invade the wrong country for the wrong reason.
Dean Horvath
Well said Dean.
But I would offer a slightly differnet take. The idea that Iraq had WMD, at least of the chemical variety, was not a unique or rare idea. Within the community is was almost a given that Iraq had chemical weapons. During his interogation sessions Sadaam said he purposefully created the image of having chemical weapons to keep the Iranians in check. The real issue was the fabrication or the story that AQ and Iraq were forming an alliance which became the basis for the urgency to invade Iraq. Secondly, was the idea, not based in reality, that the Iraqi people would welcome us as liberators and there was no need for a Phase 4 plan. Thirdly was the complete inability to respond to changing conditions in a timely manner. It was clear from the get-go that things were not shaping up as they presumed they would. But Rumsfeld and his crew seemed incapable of cognating the facts.
Rumsfeld is an accomplished man, but I don't care how patriotic he is, how smart he is, whether or not he was a Navy pilot. I care about his performance as Secretary of Defense. We needed wisdom and insightful decision making. In my opinion, that is not what we got. Lee
@ Dean
I don't know that he is in his dotage. He is more healthy, youthful, intelligent and articulate than folks half his age.
I don't know what part he played in the 'fabrication of Iraq's WMD program'. I suspect others don't know either.
I don't know what he needs to show contrition for.
As you can tell, I know that there's a lot I don't know. And, I'm following my boss's rule (or his borrowing of someone else's rule) - acknowledge what you don't know. If one is forthright, you'll do this often.
@ Lee
You hit the nail on the head with this one.
All of us can hold to our opinions and they are quite diverse.
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