What I now ask of you is military success, - I will risk the dictatorship [View All]

[ddeclue]

“What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”

Bob Woodward of Watergate investigation fame reported in the Washington Post on Sunday that on May 1st, 2006, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld issued a secret memo entitled “Illustrative new 21st Century Institutions and Approaches”.

In a key paragraph of that six-page memo, Secretary Rumsfeld made the following statement:

“It is time to consider a new Hoover Commission to recommend ways to reorganize both the executive and legislative branches, to put us on a more appropriate path for the 21st century. Only a broad, fundamental reorganization is likely to enable federal departments and agencies to function with the speed and agility the times demand. The charge of incompetence against the U.S. government should be easy to rebut if the American people understand the extent to which the current system of government makes competence next to impossible.”

In short, Secretary Rumsfeld believes that the failings of the Defense Department in the “war on terror” are not his fault as secretary but rather are structural in nature and require ominous sounding “fundamental changes” not only to the executive branch of our Federal Government but also the legislative branch which is composed of the United States Senate and the United States Congress. More ominous still is the fact that the structure and powers of both branches, which Secretary Rumsfeld seeks to change, are strictly defined by the United States Constitution.

In light of the Bush Administration’s perpetual efforts to expand and consolidate all power within the executive branch, one can only assume that the Secretary is seeking that yet more unchecked power be bestowed upon the President and himself.

Upon reading Rumsfeld’s memo, I was immediately reminded of another memo – this one written during the Civil War. This memo was sent from President Lincoln to Major General Joseph Hooker on January 28th, 1863.

In it, Lincoln wrote the following:

“I have heard, in such a way as to believe it, of your recently saying that both the Army and the Government needed a dictator. Of course, it was not for this, but in spite of it, that I have given you the command. Only those generals who gain successes can set up dictators. What I now ask of you is military success, and I will risk the dictatorship.”

Lincoln’s words of wisdom ring as true in today’s “war on terror” as they did in the much more serious crisis he faced - the Civil War.

We do not need dictators – we need military success.

If Secretary Rumsfeld doesn’t understand this, then it’s time for him to resign.

by,

Douglas J. De Clue
Orlando, FL