[iwar] [fc:Rumsfeld.Calls.For.End.To.Old.Tactics.Of.War]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-16 06:46:52

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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 06:46:52 -0700 (PDT)
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London Daily Telegraph
October 16, 2001
Rumsfeld Calls For End To Old Tactics Of War
By Toby Harnden
The frustrations of Donald Rumsfeld, the US defence secretary, with the "old
think" of his generals and their military planning are likely to lead to
major changes in the way America wages war.
Mr Rumsfeld, who first served as Pentagon chief from 1975 to 1977, is
considering sweeping changes to the structure of the US armed forces because
he believes it is too regionalised to pursue a global war on terrorism.
He has told advisers that the antiquated way in which the world is divided
up into four major regional commands is inefficient, dangerous and could
have contributed to the lack of intelligence about Osama bin Laden's plans
to attack America.
Terrorism and weapons proliferation have not received adequate attention
from senior commanders, Mr Rumsfeld has said, because they do not have the
capability to track a threat from one continent to another.
In a significant move, Mr Rumsfeld has appointed Gen Charles Holland of the
US Air Force as the operational commander of special forces in Afghanistan.
Gen Holland will bypass Gen Tommy Franks and report directly to Mr Rumsfeld
and President Bush.
Gen Franks is head of Central Command and in overall control of US forces in
Central Asia and the Middle East. As an artillery officer, however, he has
little experience of special forces operations.
Before September 11, Mr Rumsfeld, who had clashed with senior officers over
his plans to reorganise the US armed forces, appeared to be fighting a
losing battle. Some predicted he would retire before his 70th birthday next
year.
But the brash directness and impatience with conventional wisdom that had
led to Mr Rumsfeld becoming embroiled in internal wrangling during peacetime
have given him a strong hand now that his job has been transformed from
secretary of defence into secretary of war.
Mr Rumsfeld, the only person to have become US defence secretary twice, has
become the most visible member of Mr Bush's inner cabinet and has repeatedly
made it clear he believes new thinking and new structures are needed to cope
with the world after September 11.
When asked last week whether he was dissatisfied by the failure of some
people to think ahead and grasp new realities, he replied: "I don't know
about the word dissatisfied. 
"I feel a real sense of urgency and I am constantly trying to think of how
you can say something or do something or provide incentives in large
structures so that the outcomes will be optimum.
"It's hard to do. It requires a lot of thought. We all do things imperfectly
and goodness knows I do. But I guess rather than being dissatisfied I feel
challenged to try to do it better."
Despite all the talk of there being a war like no other in history, the
campaign against the Taliban had a familiar opening as laser-guided missiles
and 5,000lb bombs, with messages such as "I love New York" and "Bin Laden or
Bust" chalked on, were unleashed.
A senior aide to Mr Rumsfeld told Newsweek that the Pentagon chief feared
that this image of a conventional war might become the reality if his
generals had their way.
"The media are preparing to cover a second Gulf war and the military are
planning to fight one." At one point Mr Rumsfeld said darkly that Operation
Infinite Justice, as the Pentagon calls the war against terrorism, should be
renamed "Infinite Meetings". In briefings, Mr Rumsfeld has railed against
"old think" in Washington.
"We're so conditioned as a people to think that a military campaign has to
be cruise missiles and television images of airplanes dropping bombs and
that's just false," he said in an interview with CBS last week.
"This is a totally different war. We need a new vocabulary. We need to get
rid of old think and start thinking about this thing the way it really is."
Mr Rumsfeld is considering transferring overall military command from Gen
Franks to a senior officer in Washington.
Despite top brass protestations that the lesson of Vietnam was that the
government should not dictate how a war is fought, this would lead to much
greater political control of military operations.

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