No Rumsfeld wars, but no Rumsfeld peace either
Wednesday, June 15, 2005 at 7:42PM ■"Suicide Bomber Kills 22 In Attack At An Iraq Bank: Timed to Kill Pensioners; Assault in an Area of Rich Oil Fields May Signal a Fight for Its Control," by Edward Wong, New York Times, 15 June 2005, p. A1.
■"Let's Talk About Iraq: What is the strategy?" op-ed by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times, 15 June 2005, p. A29.
■"Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan: Advisers to Blair Predicted Instability," by Walter Pincus, Washington Post, 12 June 2005, p. A1.
■"Pentagon Funds Diplomacy Effort: Contracts Aim to Improve Foreign Opinion of United States," by Renae Merle, Washington Post, 11 June 2005, p. D1.
Friedman is right to note the worsening security situation in Iraq since the elections, but he continues to get it wrong on Powell-versus-Rumsfeld. His take on the Powell Doctrine is simply out of date and here's why: Powell was never about nation-building or the second-half effort, and his overwhelming force doctrine was about keeping the warfighting first-half effort as short as possible in order to leave the playing field as quickly as possible.
Friedman may mock Rumsfeld with the "Rumsfeld Doctrine" of "just enough troops to lose," but his head's way up his ass on that one. The Rumsfeld Doctrine is called using the information age to tilt the playing field overwhelming in the U.S. favor, thus reducing the number of soldiers we need to put at risk on the ground during war. Efficiency, Tom. Doing more with less people. Read your own book for Christ's sake!
What hasn't been married up to that transformed first-half force is a second-half force that's far more fully committed to nation-building. Here is where Powell's doctrine should live in the "flat world": in the second-half where there is no such thing as having too many cops on the beat.
Two concepts, Tom. Learn to distinguish between the two. The war was won. What is being squandered is the peace.
We got to get better at the whole shebang of nation-building, from the initial planning right through to the strategic communications that signal our intentions far more clearly. That is not winning (or losing wars), but learning how to wage peace better.
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