To the Editor
Donald Rumsfeld was not quite accurate when he said: Hey you go to war with the army you've got (T. L. Friedman, Insulting our troops and our intelligence, New York Times, November 3, 2006: A27).
What he should have said was: you go to war with the army I gave you.
According to Cobra II and Fiasco, Rumsfeld abandoned the Army's carefully Time Phased Force and Deployment Lists for both Afghanistan and Iraq. These lists are developed so that the right kinds of troops are deployed to the battlefield at the right time. By abandoning these plans, the civilian managers in Defence Department substituted their own judgement for those of the troop commanders. As a result, not only did we not have enough troops, we did not have the right kinds of troops on the ground. We are paying the price for that today.
Unfortunately, I won't be able to take Mr Friedman's advice and vote to throw the rascals out. I do not become an American citizen until November 8th. 2006.
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