Defending Rumsfeld

Tony Blankley comes to the defense of Don Rumsfeld, from the attacks of "a legion of Washington little people: a pack of has-beens, never weres and wannabees."

Many of the problems that the military currently faces, especially in the shortage of troops and equipment has to do with our Clintonian holiday from history. Throughout the 90s the Clinton administration slashed the size of the armed forces and military equipment. It was the easy and popular thing to do since it seemed like we no longer had an enemy (even without the terrorist threat, the growing threat from China was not seen as such) and wanted to enjoy the "peace dividend". Unfortunately, now that we do have an enemy again, and one that requires deployment of resources worldwide, we don't have the resources necessary for this war.

Another reason that we do not have the resources for this war is that in large part we do not recognize the WOT as a real war. And because of that we, as a society, have not fully mobilized for this war. As Blankeley points out

we can barely manufacture 500 armored Humvees (read: jeeps) a month (in World War II we could produce almost 10,000 combat airplanes a month).

It is not Rumsfeld or the Pentagon that wants to fight this war "on the cheap", it is American society that does. Until we realize that this is a real war, we will continue to send out our armed forces without all the necessary resources.