Don Rumsfeld Got Soldiers Killed for Something He Didn’t Even Believe In
This is the piece of shit the US Constitution Center has honored with a book tour appearance:
Donald Rumsfeld vowed to fight a “different kind of war.” In the days following the 9/11 attacks, the secretary of defense spoke about how America’s success in Afghanistan depended on the U.S. military being seen as liberators, not infidel invaders. Drawing upon the ranks of reservists in the military’s Civil Affairs units—a vital part of U.S. campaigns since the American Revolution—Rumsfeld would send citizen soldiers, with day jobs as judges, lawyers, carpenters, and clerks, into the countryside to restore electricity, build roads, and spread good will.
[...]
But as Rumsfeld’s new memoir, Known and Unknown, makes clear, his own heart was never really in that fight.
Well, that’s nice to know. And how did Mr. Rumsfeld abandon the troops he sent into harm’s way (for nonexistent WMD)?
A Jan. 14, 2004, trip report by Sgt. Maj. John W. Young Jr., the senior Army Reserve enlisted adviser monitoring Reserves at Special Operations, describes multiple serious problems:
• One thousand or more Civil Affairs soldiers were “ghosts” who lacked the training or fitness to be deployed.
• To get one unit filled out and ready to go, qualified Civil Affairs soldiers were cherry-picked from disparate units, a violation of the military tenet that soldiers fight best alongside those they’ve trained with—a “cross-leveling” practice still used in Afghanistan today.
• There was a lack of quarters for those who actually turned up, requiring some personnel to be billeted on cots in the gymnasium.
• Reservists were mobilized with only two weeks’ notice.
• Soldiers were forced to sign statements that they were “volunteering” for what was “an involuntary mobilization.”
• Soldiers were issued body armor without plates and bulky M-16s instead of smaller M-4 rifles more suitable for traveling in cramped vehicles. In training, due to “a shortage of weapons and ammo, they got to fire [only] one round.”
• The memo also describes a “critical shortage” of senior noncommissioned officers.
I wonder if anyone will ask Donald Rumsfeld why he hates the troops? That’s about the only way I can characterize someone who sends so many people into a war zone, without adequate support, armor, weapons, and leadership. In my not-so-humble opinion, I think Donald Rumsfeld should be hanged by the neck until dead, on live television, and then his body should be fed to hungry dogs.
I have never visited the US Constitution Center, and now I probably never will. Apparently, it’s a popular site for weddings: Christina and I were going to take a tour this weekend. I think, however, I would rather spend my money elsewhere.
