I have a modest proposal: can we all stipulate that the American military is the “finest” military in the world? I mean, no one disagrees with that, right? So, fine, we all agree, and it need no longer be said...especially as a way of evading a thorny question -- as Donald Rumsfeld repeatedly did on yesterday’s Meet the Press.
For instance, when asked about misjudgments made by him or the administration, Rummy bobbed, weaved, and finally resorted to the “finest military” dodge, saying: “I think that our military is the finest military on the face of the Earth. They are the best trained, they are the best equipped, they're the best led, and they're doing a fine, fine job for our country and for the Iraqi people.”
Fine, agreed. But how does that absolve him from admitting any of the many, many avoidable mistakes he’s made?
He used the same tired (but shockingly effective) rhetorical trick when asked about falling recruitment levels: “The people running around saying that the Army is broken are wrong. We've got the best-trained, the best-equipped and the best-led Army on the face of the Earth and the best one in the history of our country.”
Who said otherwise? The question was about recruiting, Don, not the quality of our fighting forces.
And Rumsfeld isn’t the only one in the administration using rah-rah language about the superiority of the U.S. military as an evasive maneuver. At a town hall meeting during the presidential campaign, when Vice President Cheney was asked about the possibility that a military draft might be needed to ensure our safety at home and abroad, he trotted out this non-answer answer: “This question on the draft is... hogwash is the best way I can think of to describe it. Anybody who has been associated with the all-volunteer military in recent years... that all-volunteer force has given us the most magnificent military in the world today. It’s superb.” Rah-rah, sis-boom-bah... Next question?
And while the president makes it a practice to avoid being asked questions (so much easier to evade the tough ones that way), he too is fond of reading from the “finest military” hymnal, telling the troops during his Thanksgiving 2003 visit to Iraq: “We will win because our cause is just... And we will win because you’re part of the finest military ever assembled.”
Here’s another proposal: why don’t Rumsfeld, Cheney and Bush stop providing the men and women of the “finest military in the world” a bunch of lip service they don’t need and start providing them with the armor and equipment they desperately do need.
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