Rumsfeld Redux

I've been talking a lot about Rumsfeld lately because many people have been attacking him as incompetent and much worse. As a former military man, I understand some things about the military and how it works (or doesn't) that people who haven't been in the military simply can't. You have to be there to understand what a slow moving behemoth the military is and how hard it is to effect change.

Now Wretchard has written about the issue in some depth and described some of the difficulties encountered when trying to do things in a different way. It's quite instructive and should throw new light on what Rumsfeld is up to and why it may appear that he's not doing much when in reality major changes are underway.

When Rumsfeld said, You go to war with the army you have, not the one you want", he was speaking the literal truth. If he's allowed to finish the job that he started, he may have the army he wants before Bush leaves office. And America will have been well-served.

UPDATE: Countercolumn has more and traces the military's failure to adapt to non-linear warfare all the way back to WWII. You can't blame Rumsfeld for that.