WASHINGTON -- Modern bureaucracy is the spine of the modern
state. The modern state would not be as useful as it is without
bureaucracy or as wasteful or as lethargic. Reforming bureaucracy
is the great challenge facing the greatest reformers, and that is
why Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will be assessed by
historians as a great secretary of defense. He initiated over a
hundred far-reaching reforms, and made policy changes that have
made the American military probably the most effective in the
world. Thanks to him our ground forces are more rapidly deployable.
The diverse branches of the military work together more closely.
And ballistic missile defense is much advanced.
If he were as smooth as silk, he would still have plenty of
enemies in Washington. The most difficult kind of bureaucracy to
reform is the military. Not that Rumsfeld is not a gentleman, but
he is also a man of action in time of war. Thanks to his rapid
response and great strategic vision, Osama bin Laden is woebegone
in a remote cave or perhaps crepe suzette for the worms. As for the
tyrant Saddam Hussein, the worms have their eyes on him too. I hope
those hungry worms have powerful digestive tracts. So Don Rumsfeld
disturbed the settled state of routine among some fatuous officers
at the Pentagon. He has won the hearts of the fighting troops and
of intelligent officers who recognize the vigor and intelligence
that he has brought to our national security. Those who recognize
that we are more secure today than we were prior to 9/11 will be
forever grateful. Those who do not will remain forever
ignorant.
Now in comes Bob Gates, and as is the custom in this town there
is wild speculation. He is Bush I's guy. He is James Baker's guy.
He is the CIA's guy. He is coming in from the presidency of Texas A
& M to pull the plug on our involvement in Iraq. Actually he is
Bush II's appointee, and though I shall only mildly speculate I
suspect he will do as his boss tells him. That seems to mean he
will apply a fresh set of eyes to Iraq.
I have known Gates for almost two decades and I can tell you
whose guy Gates was originally. It must have been sometime in 1985
when my friend, Director of Central Intelligence Bill Casey, had me
to lunch at his office and introduced me to someone he thought very
highly of, a protege of his, Bob Gates. Bill always had proteges,
but Gates was one of his favorites. Bill recognized that Gates was
intelligent, principled, and understood the Soviet Union. In fact,
Gates had done graduate work in the same department as I had,
Indiana University's Department of History, under a distinguished
Soviet specialist who became a mentor to me and to The American
Spectator's Editorial Director Wladyslaw Pleszczynski.
From that point on I watched Gates with especial interest and
dined with him from time to time. Anyone that thinks Gates lacks
grit or an independent mind is mistaken. He was clear-headed on the
Soviets and will be clear-headed on the Islamofascists. I well
remember when he was drafting a speech in late 1989 or 1990 in
which he presciently expressed doubt as to the effectiveness of
General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. Though the content
of the speech was suppressed, it got into the public prints. And do
you know who suppressed it? James Baker.
Gates, the first career CIA officer to become Director of
Central Intelligence, is a dedicated public servant. In his last
months at CIA he used to speak of his relish for a quiet retirement
outside Washington during which he might read and reflect on the
world. He also gave me and Wlady the best explanation of why in
Operation Desert Storm our forces did not roll into Baghdad. We
underestimated Saddam's control of the country. We thought the
regime would fall of its own weight. That estimate was wrong. If I
recall the term Gates used, he said it turned out that the Saddam
regime was a "mom and pop" regime tightly controlled by the
tyrant's family. Obviously, Gates was right. Perhaps this explains
why Bush II did not wait a second time for the defeated regime to
fall.
Now Gates is back to serve the country and everyone should wish
him well.
topics:
Islam, Law, Military, Iraq
