Taiwan and Rummy

A couple of points on Ryan’s previous posts…

First of all, Beijing is NOT the capital of Taiwan, Taipei is. Taiwan is the Republic of China, formerly known as Formosa, and has remained independent of mainland China since it was liberated from the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945. We have as many as 278 defense contracts with the Taiwanese military and government agencies, and it was with one of these that the mistake you referred to happened.

Beijing is the capital of the People’s Republic of China… mainland China, in other words. We currently have no defense contracts with the PRC (as they are still Commies… no matter what Nixon, Clinton or Bush might say), so we wouldn’t even send them the helicopter batteries, let alone nuclear triggers.

Now that the geography lesson is over, I can rant about Rummy again. Donald Rumsfeld is the SINGLE biggest mistake that George W. Bush has made in his time as President. I can’t imagine another cabinet appointment that has cost the US more in recent history… and that includes Robert McNamara and Harold Brown (two of the worst SoD I can think of in recent memory).

Rummy had a long and distinguished political career, having had his first White House appointment during the Nixon Administration, and serving all Republican Presidents since (that’s five, all told). His association with both the Bush presidencies is well documented, and I don’t doubt that the “friendship” that was so often discussed by G.W. Bush is real and heart-felt.

However, any man that is placed into the highest military command position outside of the Oval Office itself that FORGETS the primary importance of MANPOWER and good, old-fashioned INFANTRY force planning is so blatantly ignorant of military doctrine and strategy as to very nearly require an indictment. I have heard conservative pundits rip on the status of the US military after the Clinton years time and time again… and with good cause. But if the shoe fit on William Cohen, then it was tailor-made for Don Rumsfeld.

All this ranting begs the question: “Why is Gates sending text messages to Rumsfeld?” I can’t possibly imagine what advice Rummy could give that would be worth the time it took to read the reply! Short of asking Rummy, “Hey, we’ve come up a few crates short on the nuclear trigger tally… can you tell us where you left them?” what could he hope to learn? I, for one, do NOT want Rummy giving ANYONE in the White House any more advice as to how to handle national security or defense issues.