Rumsfeld's War: The Untold Story of America's Anti-Terrorist Commander - Hardcover

Scarborough, Rowan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0895260697 ISBN 13: 9780895260697

Publisher: Regnery, 2004

Synopsis

Here is the untold story of how Rumsfeld shook up the military brass and outmaneuvered national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and other administration officials to remake America's military into Special Forces-driven institution

About this title

About the Author

The list of Regnery authors reads like a "who's who" of conservative thought, action, and history.

From the Inside Flap

The man in the cockpit fighting the war on terror.

When terrorists crashed a plane into the Pentagon, he was there-helping carry the wounded to safety. And he's been there-leading the war on terror, directing its operations around the world in both open and covert missions, and bluntly focusing on one primary goal: killing terrorists. He is Donald Rumsfeld. His great fear was a second Pearl Harbor. When it happened on September 11, 2001, he led the charge to make sure it never happens again.

This book takes you inside Rumsfeld's Pentagon, detailing the far-sighted, courageous decisions he has made to enable our military to fight this most unconventional of wars. Rowan Scarborough, veteran national security reporter for the Washington Times, has had access to Rumsfeld himself as well as to numerous never-before-released documents that show not only how Rumsfeld is fighting the war, but how he is fighting the bureaucracy and remaking the American military, shifting the focus from the ingrained "can't-do" bureaucracy to the special operations Green Berets, SEALs, and others who live by "can-do."

Many of Rumsfeld's hard-won victories are revealed here for the first time. Scarborough interviewed scores of Rumsfeld's friends and colleagues, including former president Gerald Ford, economist Arthur Laffer, former speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, and many military personnel. He also provides details of some highly secretive Pentagon operations-carried out under Rumsfeld's supervision by groups that most Americans don't even know exist. In addition, Scarborough offers an enlightening comparison between Rumsfeld's decisiveness and willingness to act and declare a war on terror and the Clinton administration's lassitude, distraction, and treatment of terrorism as a law enforcement issue during al Qaeda's astonishingly rapid rise in the 1990s.

Scarborough concludes that history will surely judge Rumsfeld as "one of America's most important defense leaders." Rumsfeld's War reveals why-and how much of the bold new military strategy and vision that we are implementing now in the war on terror we owe to one brilliant, brave, and tenacious man: Donald Rumsfeld.

Reviews

If there were an official Donald H. Rumsfeld Admiration Society, Scarborough would be a leading candidate for its president. The Washington Times Pentagon reporter has written a paean to the Secretary of Defense that all but paints a big "S" on his chest. To Scarborough’s credit, though, he makes his opinion immediately clear: "History will surely judge Rumsfeld one of America’s most important defense leaders," he writes in the introduction. Nevertheless, Scarborough casts a revealing eye on "Rummy’s" campaign to make the Pentagon heel to his foreign policies. The book is full of juicy tidbits—most of them in the first two chapters—gleaned from classified documents. For instance, a full six months before asking the United Nations to endorse the use of force in Iraq, Scarborough writes, President Bush signed a secret National Security Directive establishing the goals and objectives for going to war with the country. Scarborough also relates how a top secret military unit code-named "Grey Fox" contributed to the assassination of Al Qaeda planner Qaed Senyan al Harthi by turning on his satellite phone without his knowledge and exposing his position in a convoy speeding across the Yemini desert. Other anecdotes serve to emphasize Rumsfeld’s "preference for military, special forces solutions to law enforcement scenarios." A later chapter is devoted to his skills as a manager. "In assessing Rumsfeld, clichés work," Scarborough writes. "His life is an ‘all-American story.’ He does not ‘suffer fools gladly.’ And, Donald H. Rumfeld is ‘the right man at the right time.’" Readers already convinced of Rumsfeld’s talents as a leader will enjoy this enthusiastic book, but those looking for a balanced assessment of the Defense Secretary’s job performance may prefer James Mann’s level-headed study The Rise of the Vulcans.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Regnery
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0895260697
• ISBN 13: 9780895260697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 276