[Danimal16]

Originally posted by m21sniper
Rumsfeld pressured General Tommy Franks into throwing it out. Everyone else in the chain of command below franks just held their breath and griped among themselves.(except for Shinseki, who was above Franks, and who testified before Congress that the invasion force was too small, and the on-scene commander William Wallace, who likewise stated that the force was too small, and of course ret. Generals Barry McCaffrey(my former CO) and Wesley Clark)

Rumsfeld also sent his own planning staff to 'spy' on CENTCOM's planning staff during the phase where the warplans were being drawn up. Anytime his 'spies' reported to him something he didn't like, he was on the phone(or sent one of his infamous "Snowflake" memos) chirping in Tommy Franks ear to get his way. In the end, CENTCOM ended up giving them their own trailer on a queit corner of McDill AFB, and cut them out of the loop entirely.



The generals have consistently asked for more, and oft-times been turned down by Rumnamara.

One specific example involves the 82nd Abn, and a request in 2004 for four prototype light tanks to be sent to Iraq to help bolster the 82nd's combat power.

Rumsfeld turned them down flat.

The vehicles in question(and some background):
http://www.geocities.com/pentagon/quarters/2116/lighttanks.htm

Another good example is the thousands of M-113A3 armored personnel carriers we had in storage in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait the Rumsfeld refused to release to our forces when the insurgency was first gaining momentum and we got caught with a severe shortage of M1114s(up-armored HUMVEEs) in theater.
There are several theories as to why Rummy denied them, the most likely being that it 'threatened' the brand new Stryker combat vehicle, the most heinous being that releasing older 'dinosaur legacy' armored vehicles undermined his vision for the future of ground combat(something that, btw, he has ZERO experience with)

Rumsfeld has it set in his head that we should be doing X, even though the rest of the Army does not see it the same way. the bottom line is that Rummy was a micro-managing control-freak of the first order.

Thank god he's gone, that's all i can say.

Cobra II(looks at Rummys role) and Fiasco(takes a critical look at senior US Military leadership) have all of this and much, much more in much, much greater detail. Both are must reads.

Both came highly reccomended to me by a US Army Major who is also a West Point professor, and one of the smartest soldiers i know.

Yes, Yes, and Yes