treedancer
Commander
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2005
- Messages
- 2,216
QUOTE vice President Cheney
In his regard for our people in uniform, in his unwavering strength through unprecedented challenges, in his example of leadership and patriotic service, I believe the record speaks for itself: Don Rumsfeld is the finest Secretary of Defense this nation has ever had.
I dont know what measure Cheney is using. Rummy fought tooth and nail against army and marine generals to increase troop strength of the forces so he could protect his legacy as a transformer of the military. He put his legacy above the lives of soldiers. Hell, he wanted to cut the army by 2 divisions to pay for his transformation programs and only reluctantly agreed to a 30,000 temporary increase in soldiers.
Lets have a look see at that statement, here is one that comes to mind that I believe was a lot better and he thought mare more troops were the thing to have when you go into war, not less.
George C. Marshall= September 21, 1950 - September 12, 1951
Secretary of Defense, Truman Administration.
Marshall had extensive combat experience in Europe during World War I. President Roosevelt appointed Marshall Army chief of staff. In that position and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff beginning in 1942, Marshall labored unceasingly to build up U.S. defenses and to prepare the Army for action.
In December 1953 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the development of the Marshall Plan and his other contributions to international peace and understanding.
Yes I would say that General Marshall would qualify as a better secretary of Defense than Rumsfield.
Hell, even Newton Baker Woodrow Wilsons (secretary of war) during World War 1 even seen the light, of having more troops.
After the United States entered the First World War Baker drew up plans for universal military conscription, which resulted in the mobilization of more than 4 million men.Dont know what other qualifications he had other than he was
A Democratic mayor of Cleveland.
Henry L.Stimson was Secretary of War from 1940 till 1945.
He was a conservative Republican, got his BA from Yale in 1888,and a full-fledged member of the Skull and bones.
Here is a bit of trivia that not everybody knows, he was appointed Secretary of war by FDR.
In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt a Democrat, returned him to his old post at the head of the War Department, and he skillfully directed the rapid, tremendous expansion of the Army to a force of over 10,000,000 soldiers.Hows that for bipartisanship.
Notice that he thought it was a good idea increase troop strength, not scrimp in time of war. This dude served Secretary of War in 1911 under President William Howard Taft. He must have had rather good rep, to be appointed the same job under two different Presidents, of different political parties.
In 1929 he shut down MI-8, the State Department's cryptanalytic office, saying, "Gentlemen don't read each other's mail." (He later reversed this attitude)
Id have to give him cudos and say most likely he was a better "Secretary of war /Secretary of defense" than Rumsfield.
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 May 22, 1949) was a Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
I think that I finally found one that Rummsfield could beat out; this guy was a Bond salesman/Political hack that had a nervous breakdown.
Forrestal seemed to be on the road to recovery, having regained 12 pounds since his entry into the hospital. However, in the early morning hours of May 22, his body was found on a third-floor roof below the 16th-floor kitchen across the hall from his room. The Montgomery County, Maryland county coroner called it a suicide within hours of the death. The conspiracy theorist are all over this one.
Think Ill limit myself to wartime Secretary of defense.
Robert "Strange" McNamara (born June 9, 1916) is an American business executive and a former United States Secretary of Defense. McNamara served as Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, during the Vietnam War period. With the name strange as your middle Initial how could you do anything right?/
After earning his MBA, McNamara worked a year for the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. In August 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at the time.
Following his involvement there in a program to teach the analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF), he entered the Army as a captain in early 1943, serving most of the war with the AAF's Office of Statistical Control.
Although not especially knowledgeable about defense matters, McNamara immersed himself in the subject, learned quickly, and soon began to apply an "active role" management philosophy, in his own words "providing aggressive leadership questioning, suggesting alternatives, proposing objectives and stimulating progress. Bean counter.
Donald Henry Rumsfeld ,
13th United States Secretary of Defense, In office
November 20, 1975 January 20, 1977 Under President Gerald Ford
21st United States Secretary of Defense
In office
January 20, 2001 December 18, 2006 Under President George W. Bush
He is the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (68 years old) person to have held the position, as well as the only person to hold the position for two non-consecutive terms. Except for Robert McNamara he served in the position longer than anyone else.
Rumsfeld has also served in various positions under President Richard Nixon, served four terms in the United States House of Representatives, and served as United States Ambassador to NATO. Rumsfeld was an aviator in the United States Navy between 1954 and 1957 before transferring to the Reserve.Heres another bit of trivia that I didnt know, While at Princeton his roommate was another future Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci.
Rumsfeld served in the U.S. Navy from 1954 to 1957 as an aviator and flight instructor, training in North American SNJ basic trainers and later flying Grumman F9F Panther fighters. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his Naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist until 1975.
Rumsfeld sat on ABB's board from 1990 to 2001, earning $190,000 a year. ABB is a European engineering giant based in Zürich, Switzerland; formed through the merger between ASEA of Sweden and Brown Boveri of Switzerland. In 2000 this company sold two light water nuclear reactors to KEDO for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under President Bill Clinton.Now lets here it again how Clinton sold nuclear reactors to North Korea,looks like he had a little help didnt he?
Rumsfeld was named Defense Secretary soon after President George W. Bush took office in 2001.
Rumsfeld immediately announced a series of sweeping reviews intended to plot the transformation of the U.S. military into a lighter, more nimble force. These studies, led by Pentagon analyst Andrew Marshall, drew widespread resistance from the military services and members of Congress, who worried that Rumsfeld would cancel pet projects.
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Rumsfeld led the military planning and execution of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Rumsfeld pushed hard to send as small a force as possible to both conflicts, a concept codified as the Rumsfeld Doctrine.
Critics further complained that there was no plan to deal with the existing Iraqi armed forces]. They were disbanded, leaving hundreds of thousands of armed and unemployed men in the country. A violent insurrection began shortly after the occupation started.
I put these two together because I think that they are the two, most incompetent Secretary of Defenses that we have could have in times of war. I guess that vice President Cheney was just saying a few kind words for an old friend. Now your opinions??
In his regard for our people in uniform, in his unwavering strength through unprecedented challenges, in his example of leadership and patriotic service, I believe the record speaks for itself: Don Rumsfeld is the finest Secretary of Defense this nation has ever had.
I dont know what measure Cheney is using. Rummy fought tooth and nail against army and marine generals to increase troop strength of the forces so he could protect his legacy as a transformer of the military. He put his legacy above the lives of soldiers. Hell, he wanted to cut the army by 2 divisions to pay for his transformation programs and only reluctantly agreed to a 30,000 temporary increase in soldiers.
Lets have a look see at that statement, here is one that comes to mind that I believe was a lot better and he thought mare more troops were the thing to have when you go into war, not less.
George C. Marshall= September 21, 1950 - September 12, 1951
Secretary of Defense, Truman Administration.
Marshall had extensive combat experience in Europe during World War I. President Roosevelt appointed Marshall Army chief of staff. In that position and as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff beginning in 1942, Marshall labored unceasingly to build up U.S. defenses and to prepare the Army for action.
In December 1953 he received the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in the development of the Marshall Plan and his other contributions to international peace and understanding.
Yes I would say that General Marshall would qualify as a better secretary of Defense than Rumsfield.
Hell, even Newton Baker Woodrow Wilsons (secretary of war) during World War 1 even seen the light, of having more troops.
After the United States entered the First World War Baker drew up plans for universal military conscription, which resulted in the mobilization of more than 4 million men.Dont know what other qualifications he had other than he was
A Democratic mayor of Cleveland.
Henry L.Stimson was Secretary of War from 1940 till 1945.
He was a conservative Republican, got his BA from Yale in 1888,and a full-fledged member of the Skull and bones.
Here is a bit of trivia that not everybody knows, he was appointed Secretary of war by FDR.
In 1940 President Franklin D. Roosevelt a Democrat, returned him to his old post at the head of the War Department, and he skillfully directed the rapid, tremendous expansion of the Army to a force of over 10,000,000 soldiers.Hows that for bipartisanship.
Notice that he thought it was a good idea increase troop strength, not scrimp in time of war. This dude served Secretary of War in 1911 under President William Howard Taft. He must have had rather good rep, to be appointed the same job under two different Presidents, of different political parties.
In 1929 he shut down MI-8, the State Department's cryptanalytic office, saying, "Gentlemen don't read each other's mail." (He later reversed this attitude)
Id have to give him cudos and say most likely he was a better "Secretary of war /Secretary of defense" than Rumsfield.
James Vincent Forrestal (February 15, 1892 May 22, 1949) was a Secretary of the Navy and the first United States Secretary of Defense.
I think that I finally found one that Rummsfield could beat out; this guy was a Bond salesman/Political hack that had a nervous breakdown.
Forrestal seemed to be on the road to recovery, having regained 12 pounds since his entry into the hospital. However, in the early morning hours of May 22, his body was found on a third-floor roof below the 16th-floor kitchen across the hall from his room. The Montgomery County, Maryland county coroner called it a suicide within hours of the death. The conspiracy theorist are all over this one.
Think Ill limit myself to wartime Secretary of defense.
Robert "Strange" McNamara (born June 9, 1916) is an American business executive and a former United States Secretary of Defense. McNamara served as Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1968, during the Vietnam War period. With the name strange as your middle Initial how could you do anything right?/
After earning his MBA, McNamara worked a year for the accounting firm Price Waterhouse in San Francisco. In August 1940 he returned to Harvard to teach in the Business School and became the highest paid and youngest Assistant Professor at the time.
Following his involvement there in a program to teach the analytical approaches used in business to officers of the Army Air Forces (AAF), he entered the Army as a captain in early 1943, serving most of the war with the AAF's Office of Statistical Control.
Although not especially knowledgeable about defense matters, McNamara immersed himself in the subject, learned quickly, and soon began to apply an "active role" management philosophy, in his own words "providing aggressive leadership questioning, suggesting alternatives, proposing objectives and stimulating progress. Bean counter.
Donald Henry Rumsfeld ,
13th United States Secretary of Defense, In office
November 20, 1975 January 20, 1977 Under President Gerald Ford
21st United States Secretary of Defense
In office
January 20, 2001 December 18, 2006 Under President George W. Bush
He is the youngest (43 years old) and the oldest (68 years old) person to have held the position, as well as the only person to hold the position for two non-consecutive terms. Except for Robert McNamara he served in the position longer than anyone else.
Rumsfeld has also served in various positions under President Richard Nixon, served four terms in the United States House of Representatives, and served as United States Ambassador to NATO. Rumsfeld was an aviator in the United States Navy between 1954 and 1957 before transferring to the Reserve.Heres another bit of trivia that I didnt know, While at Princeton his roommate was another future Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci.
Rumsfeld served in the U.S. Navy from 1954 to 1957 as an aviator and flight instructor, training in North American SNJ basic trainers and later flying Grumman F9F Panther fighters. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his Naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist until 1975.
Rumsfeld sat on ABB's board from 1990 to 2001, earning $190,000 a year. ABB is a European engineering giant based in Zürich, Switzerland; formed through the merger between ASEA of Sweden and Brown Boveri of Switzerland. In 2000 this company sold two light water nuclear reactors to KEDO for installation in North Korea, as part of the 1994 agreed framework reached under President Bill Clinton.Now lets here it again how Clinton sold nuclear reactors to North Korea,looks like he had a little help didnt he?
Rumsfeld was named Defense Secretary soon after President George W. Bush took office in 2001.
Rumsfeld immediately announced a series of sweeping reviews intended to plot the transformation of the U.S. military into a lighter, more nimble force. These studies, led by Pentagon analyst Andrew Marshall, drew widespread resistance from the military services and members of Congress, who worried that Rumsfeld would cancel pet projects.
Following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, Rumsfeld led the military planning and execution of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Rumsfeld pushed hard to send as small a force as possible to both conflicts, a concept codified as the Rumsfeld Doctrine.
Critics further complained that there was no plan to deal with the existing Iraqi armed forces]. They were disbanded, leaving hundreds of thousands of armed and unemployed men in the country. A violent insurrection began shortly after the occupation started.
I put these two together because I think that they are the two, most incompetent Secretary of Defenses that we have could have in times of war. I guess that vice President Cheney was just saying a few kind words for an old friend. Now your opinions??
