Donald Rumsfeld's resignation brings significant generational change to Pentagon leadership - 8-Nov-06 - Generational Dynamics

Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Nov-06

Donald Rumsfeld's resignation brings significant generational change to Pentagon leadership

Robert Gates will be more confrontational but less focused.

President Bush announced that Donald Rumsfeld will leave as Secretary of Defense, and that former CIA director Robert M. Gates will replace him.

I've said several times on this web site that Donald Rumsfeld is just about the only person in Washington that I trust to know what's going on in the word and is preparing the nation for it.

Donald Rumsfeld <font size=-2>(Source: CNN)</font>

Donald Rumsfeld (Source: CNN)

He's in the Silent generation, born in 1932. He grew up at a time when the West was oblivious to the threats posed by Germany and Japan, and so he understands the danger posed by the rapid militarization of China and Iran today.

In particular, Rumsfeld was 9 years old on the day of the biggest military disaster in American history, when the Japanese destroyed almost the entire Pacific fleet in a single day on November 7, 1941.

Rumsfeld remembers well how unprepared we were for that attack, and he remembers the anxiety and fear that all Americans felt on that day when they realized that America's major Pacific defenses had all been stripped away in one day, and that the country was now open and vulnerable to Japanese and even German attacks.

Now Rumsfeld's life has come first circle, and as Secretary of Defense it's been his responsibility to make sure that we aren't unprepared again. To that end he's spent his six-year term reorganizing the armed forces into a high-tech force, and he's refocused the armed forces to be fully prepared for a war in the Pacific.

This reorganization has gotten a lot of noses out of joint in the Pentagon bureaucracy, and you can bet that a lot of the Washington opposition to Rumsfeld was from people losing their pet projects in the reorganization, and you can also bet that many parts of the armed forces are just as oblivious today to the danger from China as they were in 1941 to the dangers from Japan.

But Rumsfeld's personal memories of the 1941 horror have kept him focused on this difficult job of making sure that the nation is prepared for the dangers we face.

The mainstream media is totally ignoring this point, but President Bush spoke of it at length at today's announcement:

"America is safer and the world is more secure because of the service and the leadership of Donald Rumsfeld. As he led the Pentagon in an unprecedented war, Don never took his eye off another vital responsibility, preparing America for the threats that await us as this new century unfolds. He developed a new defense strategy. He established a new Northern Command to protect the homeland, a new Joint Forces Command to focus on transformation, a new Strategic Command to defend against long-range attack, and transformed the U.S. Special Operations Command for the war on terror.

He led our efforts to create a new NATO Response Force that allows NATO to deploy rapidly anywhere in the world. He undertook the most sweeping transformation of America's global force posture since the end of World War II. He revitalized America's efforts to develop and deploy ballistic missile defenses, and led a comprehensive review of America's nuclear forces that has allowed us to undertake dramatic reductions in offensive nuclear weapons.

Don's work in these areas did not often make the headlines. But the reforms that he has set in motion are historic, and they will enhance the security of the American people for decades to come."

Rumsfeld prosecuted his job with brutal energy. I still remember Rumsfeld at press conferences during the Afghan and Iraq wars, responding to a reporter's question with something like the following: "We aren't trying to be nice to these people; what we want is to kill them." No one could ever doubt Rumsfeld's steely determination to get the job done.

Robert M. Gates is a member of the Boomer generation, born in September, 1943. (The mainstream definition of "Baby Boomer" starts in the year 1945, but for the purposes of Generational Dynamics, the Boomer generation begins in 1942, the first birth year of people with no personal memory of World War II.)

Robert M. Gates <font size=-2>(Source: CNN)</font>

Robert M. Gates (Source: CNN)

Bob Gates has served 26 years in the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council, and so is very well aware of the growing and approaching danger from China. Gates' top goals will certainly be the same as Rumsfeld's -- make sure that the nation is prepared for the inevitable world war with China and Iran.

But Gates is much more of a politician. He'll be confrontational, like any Boomer, but in the end he'll be driven more by the need for consensus -- within the armed forces and with Congress. Gates will not have Rumsfeld's single-minded, relentless focus on preparing and protecting the nation, and will occasionally compromise in places where Rumsfeld wouldn't have.

From the point of view of Generational Dynamics, the replacement of Don Rumsfeld with a Boomer is possibly the most significant political decision of 2006, even more significant than yesterday's election. Whether the nation suffers for it is something that historians will have to decide in the decades to come.

Generational Dynamics, Baby Boomers, Crisis Wars, Fourth Turning, Generation X, (8-Nov-06) Permanent Link
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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Nov-06 Donald Rumsfeld's resignation brings significant generational change to Pentagon leadership

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Generational Dynamics Web Log for 8-Nov-06
Donald Rumsfeld's resignation brings significant generational change to Pentagon leadership