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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | October 2006 
Cutting the Trim
 David Lord - PVNN
| | US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, seen here addressing a joint press conference, said the US is pressing the Iraqi government to say when it can provide security for more provinces and implement measures to reconcile warring sects. (AFP/Mandel Ngan) |
I am concluding that we face a disaster in Iraq in part because of Rumsfeld's attempt to reshape our military to conform to corporate management principles. Before 9-11 Rumsfield's shake-them-up, trim-the-fat corporate style was used to take corporations from financial disaster to profitability very successfully.
President Bush appointed Rumsfeld to be the 21st Secretary of Defense, and to manage the Military in his slash-and-cut style, which has turned into a catastrophic mistake for the Generals prosecuting the Iraq War.
His previous policy used at the multi-national corporations that he managed were successful in part by cutting positions and replacing the individual worker with multi-tasking positions covering the same functions with fewer employees.
These policies then became a mandate to the Generals to cut and trim for the battle plan going into Iraq. General Franks was told time and again to cut the number of troops spearheading the force going into Iraq.
Rumsfield did not understand that to cut numbers of combat troops in the military is in fact cutting muscle. The Troops cannot be cut away as if they were the excess fat causing the over spending. This trim of troops has cost America's Military dearly.
Due to Rumsfeld's management style, we as a Nation will pay a very dearly for years to come. I think this War was the result of American citizens electing a Presidential Child and providing that egocentric Child with the reins of power, which he then used after 9-11 in patriotic fervor to avenge his Presidential Father's old grudges.
Americans were being herded, even stampeded into a War by the intentional misdirection of the child President. The use of 9-11 not only as wake-up call, but also as a call to war was ever so easy to believe. When the spin masters presented their weapons of mass destruction scenario before Congress, all Americans wanted justice for the evil attack on American soil.
Today I was contacted by one of my readers (a friend with boots on the ground in Iraq) who is here in Puerto Vallarta for a couple weeks of R and R before returning to Iraq.
He is in full disagreement of me advising my readers to support our troops by having them come home at the earliest possible time, militarily speaking, well before the civil unrest is over - which will take years.
He does not see my column as working towards preserving our military for the real business of protecting America at home. He thinks my writings are against the war and against America - rather than seeing them as an attempt to protect and inform America. He has flatly stated that I am wrong and have totally missed the necessity of winning the War in Iraq, adding that we can win if we stay the course.
I do not believe we can stop the sectarian violence or terror against the people of Iraq when it is based on the ethnic hatred of one another. We see Iraqi ethnic groups increasing the murderous assault on one another, regardless of our effort to install a democratic system.
He insisted that I must travel to Iraq to understand the needs of the Iraqi people and see all we have accomplished. My friend is a good person with the best of intentions. Fellow Veterans, I invite your thoughts on any part of the Iraq War, pro or con. We can all learn from an open debate.
It is the VETERAN, not the preacher, who has given us freedom of religion.
It is the VETERAN, not the reporter, who has given us freedom of the press.
It is the VETERAN, not the poet, who has given us freedom of speech.
It is the VETERAN, not the campus organizer, who has given us freedom to assemble.
It is the VETERAN, not the lawyer, who has given us the right to a fair trial.
It is the VETERAN, not the politician, who has given us the right to vote.
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at mophmx@@yahoo.com or david.lord@yahoo.com.
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